ILLINOIS  HISTORICAL  SURVBC 


OF  THE 
UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS. 


Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

From  a  photograph  by  Wright  &  Cook, 

Phikdelphia,  1903 


Henry   Demarest   Lloyd 


184  7—1 9  O  3 
A  Biography 

By 

I 

Caro  Lloyd 


With  an  Introduction  by 

Charles  Edward  Russell 


In  Two  Volumes 
Volume  Two 


Illustrated 


G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons 

New    York    and    London 

Ube  Imicfcerbocfcer  press 

1912 


B 
v. 


COPYRIGHT,  1912 

BY 
G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 


Ube  fmfcfeerbocfter  press,  flew  tfocft 


The  reformer  is  a  poet,  a  creator.  He  sees  visions 
and  fills  the  people  with  their  beauty;  and  by  the 
contagion  of  virtue  his  creative  impulse  spreads  among 
the  mass,  and  it  begins  to  climb  and  build. 

HENRY  D.  LLOYD. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

XV    "  MAN,  THE  CREATOR  "  i 

Manuscript  on  his  Religious  Philosophy, 
his  Conception  of  God,  of  the  Creative 
Powerof  Man — TheReligion  of  Labour. 

XVI     "THE  MONEY  OF  THE  NEW  CONSCIENCE"      19 
Manuscript  Analysing  the  Mistakes  of 
our   Monetary   System,   and   Present 
Indications  of  the  Form  of  Money  in 
the  Future. 

XVII  VOICES  IN  THE  WILDERNESS  ...  45 
Conference  of  Progressives  at  Lake 
George,  New  York — Visit  to  the 
Shakers  at  Mount  Lebanon — The 
Wave  of  Colonising  Enthusiasm;  the 
Brotherhood  of  the  Co-operative  Com- 
monwealth, Ruskin,  the  Christian 
Commonwealth — Value  of  these 
Experiments. 

XVIII  "!N  CO-OPERATIVE  LAND"  ...  68 
Study  of  Co-operative  Production  in 
England  and  his  Book,  Labor  Copart- 
nership— The  Relation  between  Co- 
operation and  Socialism — Difficulties 
Facing  American  Co-operation. 

XIX    "  A  DEMOCRATIC  TRAVELLER  "          .         .      94 
Travels  in  New  Zealand,  and  Picture  of 
its  Democracy  in  his  Books,  A  Coun- 
try without  Strikes  and  Newest  England. 


vi  Contents 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

XX     "OUR  OLD  ENEMY"         .         .         .         .     125 

Indirect  Efforts  against  the  Trusts — 
Attitude  toward  Imperialism,  the 
Monroe  Doctrine,  the  Cuban  War,  and 
the  Philippine  Annexation — The  Steel 
Trust— The  Postal  Deficit— Toledo's 
Surrender — The  Suit  of  the  American 
Book  Company  against  the  Kingdom 
Publishing  Company — Attorney-Gen- 
eral Monnett's  Suit  against  the  Stand- 
ard Oil  Trust  in  Ohio — Helplessness 
of  the  People  against  the  Increasing 
Power  of  the  Trusts — His  View  of 
Trusts  at  this  Time,  and  Idea  of 
Methods  by  which  People  could  Obtain 
Possession. 


XXI     "!N  THE  RAPIDS  OF  A  NEW  ERA"    .         .     160 

Forecasts  of  the  New  Century — Journeys 
Abroad  for  Material  for  Books  on 
Switzerland  and  Co-operation — Period 
of  Depression — Lecturing  on  the 
Pacific  Coast — American  Trusts  Be- 
coming World- wide  in  Power — Belief 
that  Remedy  must  and  would  Come 
from  America. 


XXII     "HARD,  VERY  HARD  COAL"     .  .     187 

The  Strike  of  the  Anthracite  Coal  Miners 
— Arbitration  Commission  Appointed 
— His  Services  Offered  to  the  Miners — 
Preparation  of  their  Case — Answer  to 
President  Eliot's  Defence  of  Strike 
Breakers. 


Contents  vii 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

XXIII  "Mv  FIRST  CASE"          .         .         .         .     209 

The  Anthracite  Coal  Strike  Commission 
—The  Mitchell- Darrow-Lloyd  Meeting 
in  Chicago. 

XXIV  "THE  PEOPLE'S  ATTORNEY — MY  HUMBLE 

SELF"     ......     239 

Driving  the  Lesson  Home — Argument  for 
National  Ownership  of  Coal  Mines 
before  Committees  of  Maine  and 
Massachusetts  Legislatures. 

XXV    "WHY  I  JOIN  THE  SOCIALISTS"         .         .     253 
Considerations  Leading  him  toward  Join- 
ing the  Socialist  Party  Organisation. 

XXVI    His  LAST  VOLLEY  .         .         .         .         .280 
Work  in  Chicago  Traction  Struggle — His 
Death. 

XXVII    "FAREWELL  AND  HAIL!"         .         .         .312 

The  Man. 

APPENDIX.     ......     327 

LIST  OF  HIS  WRITINGS     .         .         .         .351 

INDEX 365 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

HENRY  DEMAREST  LLOYD       .         .         .    Frontispiece 

LAYING  THE  CORNER-STONE  OF  RUSKIN  COLLEGE  OF 

THE  NEW  ECONOMY         .....       62 

MR.  LLOYD  IN  1898        ......       82 

IN  NEW  ZEALAND          ......      98 

STARTING  OUT  FROM  KUROW  .         .         .         .         .100 

"A  DEMOCRATIC  TRAVELLER"         .         .         .         .108 

A  GROUP  AT  THE  JOHN  BOYLE  O'REILLY  STATUE      .     120 
THE  LETTER  OF  GEORGE  F.  BAER  .         .         .         .190 

THE  ANTHRACITE  COAL  STRIKE  COMMISSION     .         .212 
THE  BREAKER  BOY        ......     214 

"THE  MINERS'  TRINITY" 236 

"SEIZE  THE  MINES"      .         .         .         .         .         .     248 

THE  TRACTION  EMERGENCY  CALL  ....     346 


IX 


CHAPTER   XV 
"MAN,  THE  CREATOR" 

UNDER  the  concrete  crises  and  duties,  Lloyd  had 
been  striving  in  travail  of  spirit  to  find  a  foot- 
hold of  philosophy  from  which  his  aspiring  soul  might 
work  and  progress.  He  had  watched,  listened,  studied, 
communed,  eager  to  find  out  "how  it  is."  It  was 
impossible  for  him  to  accept  on  faith,  or  to  adopt 
unchallenged  the  conclusions  of  other  minds.  Early 
in  life  he  had  described  himself  as  "  a  reverent  agnostic. " 
Hence  he  bravely  questioned,  fearlessly  entered  the 
holiest  ground.  He  claimed  no  right  save  that  which 
belonged  to  every  man  of  trying  to  find  out,  of  contest- 
ing the  claims  of  those  who  said  they  already  knew  all. 
The  static  virtues  of  duty,  obedience,  were  too  cold 
for  his  spirit.  Other  impulses  burned  within  him. 
To  aspire,  to  progress,  was  his  conscious  aim.  Onward 
said  his  word  and  his  deed.  To  be  anything  less  than 
creative  or  productive  was  not  in  his  eyes  to  be  really 
good.  Progress  was  a  greater  word  than  perfection. 
He  believed  in  a  "progressive  revelation,  a  dawning 
day."  "Man  is  fated  to  be  ever  asking  questions  of 
the  sky,"  he  said.  His  mother,  realising  the  trouble 
of  his  spirit,  once  said:  "The  only  thing  that  will  make 
Henry  happy  is  to  find  his  God."  This  quest  filled 
his  deepest  thoughts  for  years.  He  now  felt  that  he 


VOL.  II — I 


2  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

had  seen  the  light.  It  had  been  a  long  journey  from 
the  pulpit  teaching  of  his  youth,  where,  amid  the 
eternal  beauty  of  piety,  there  resounded  the  paralysing 
doctrines  of  election  and  total  depravity,  the  portrayal 
of  an  infinite  overruling  God,  holding  man's  destinies 
in  his  palm,  a  being  to  be  feared  and  yet  loved. 
The  old  Fourth  Street  Dutch  Reformed  Church  had 
been  torn  down,  its  granite  monolith  columns  broken 
in  pieces,  its  devout  members  had  migrated.  This 
destruction  and  migration  were  typical,  its  creed  too 
was  in  flight.  There  was  arising  over  the  world  a 
religious  enthusiasm  which,  withdrawing  its  rapt 
gaze  from  the  next  world,  was  looking  lovingly  upon 
this  and  striving  to  open  the  gates  of  an  earthly  para- 
dise. The  little  boy  of  twelve  who  had  dared  to  question 
the  teachings  of  his  elders  had  ever  since  in  quiet 
moments  been  bringing  under  the  light  of  social, 
scientific  scrutiny  those  holy  mysteries  which  had  so 
puzzled  him  in  the  faith  of  his  fathers.  He  searched 
the  meaning  of  God,  of  Christ,  of  immortality,  of 
heaven,  and  as  he  did  so  he  brought  them  down  to 
earth,  traced  each  to  a  source  in  the  heart  and  mind  of 
man. 

Men  saw  the  light  of  his  faith  now  shining  in  his 
face.  Hardly  a  day  but  that  he  received  some  letter 
full  of  anger  or  sorrow  over  the  country's  fate,  yet 
those  who  met  him,  themselves  on  fire  with  the  indigna- 
tion aroused  by  his  exposures,  found  to  their  surprise 
a  man  of  calm,  in  whom  these  fires,  controlled  and 
stored,  were  emitting  a  steady  white  light  of  peace. 
He  himself  described  his  prevailing  mood  in  a  letter  to 
B.  Fay  Mills,  who  read  it  from  his  pulpit: 

Thank  you  for  your  words  of  encouragement.     .     .     . 


"Man,  the  Creator"  3 

Religion  I  believe  to  be  now  in  process  of  another  great 
expansion.  As  Judaism  with  its  brotherhood  of  the  He- 
brews opened  into  Christianity  with  its  brotherhood  of  all 
men,  Christianity  with  its  brotherhood  of  all  men  in  the 
Church  is  budding  into  a  brotherhood  of  all  men  in  all 
things,  but  particularly  and  specially  in  business  and  indus- 
try— the  great  activities  of  our  time.  It  is  because  I  see 
and  feel  this  to  be  the  key-note  of  our  times  that  I  am  full 
of  hope;  nothing  seems  dark. 

In  him  were  the  times  reflected.  His  own  need  for  a 
faith  was,  he  saw,  the  need  of  all.  The  philosophy 
which  was  reviving  his  spirit  was  gathering  force  in 
the  people  of  the  world  as  a  new  religion. 

Our  great  need  is  for  a  positive  ideal  to  guide  and  inspire, 
in  place  of  the  negative,  material  opposition  of  our  present 
policies.  I  find  wherever  I  go  that  the  people  are  for  want 
of  such  a  Word  still  unaroused,  believing  neither  in  their 
rulers,  nor  themselves,  nor  the  reformers,  thinking  of  these 
latter  only  as  the  Outs  who  want  to  get  in. I 

To  herald  this  Word  and  thus  help  to  create  and 
strengthen  it  was  his  next  task.  He  started  to  write 
the  book  which  had  been  growing  in  his  thoughts  for 
many  years.  The  productions  of  masters  have  always 
been  characterised  according  to  Emerson  by  the  com- 
bination of  drill  and  inspiration.  "He  is  a  revealer 
of  things,"  he  says  of  the  scholar.  "Let  him  first 
learn  the  things. "  This  analysis  describes  the  two  eras 
in  Lloyd's  work.  He  had  learned  the  things,  he  now 
hoped  to  reveal  and  interpret  them.  He  himself  spoke 
of  the  poets  of  progress,  who  were  filling  the  break  of 
our  new  day  with  "their  double  notes  of  rebuke  and 
inspiration. "  All  through  the  prose  of  his  lectures,  his 

1  Letter  to  President  Gates,  1895. 


4  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

books,  his  talk,  had  these  double  notes  been  singing. 
He  now  decided  that  the  note  of  inspiration  was  to 
lead.  That  voice  and  not  denunciation  had  become  the 
need  of  the  times.  He  approached  reverently  this 
work,  his  aim  being  not  to  solve,  but  to  study  what  was 
germinating  in  the  mind  and  heart  of  man,  and  to 
"report  and  criticise."  He  said  he  wanted  to  be  "a 
bringer  of  hope.  Hope  is  a  prolific  mother  of  reform. " 
The  message  which  he  found  to  deliver  was  a  joyous 
one.  "I  come  with  tidings  of  great  joy,"  he  wrote 
exultantly  in  his  note-book.  "The  Coming  Joy  of 
Life,"  "The  Coming  Peace,"  "In  the  Year  of  Man, 
One, "  were  some  of  the  titles  with  which  he  headed  his 
manuscript,  revealing  its_  vision  of  hope.  Its  first 
sentence  told  his  faith :  £" Man  is  a  creator  and  in  his 
province  is  the  creator  and  redeemer  of  himself  and 
society."  It  was  to  a  consciousness  of  this  glorious 
destiny  that  man  was  now  awaking.  "A  revelation  of 
the  godhood  of  man  is  upon  us."  The  race,  passing 
out  of  its  childhood  into  its  manhood,  must  now  realise 
its  own  godhood.  As  the  watchword  of  the  passing 
era  had  been  Evolution,  that  of  the  new  was  to  be 
Creation.  Man  was  not  the  creator,  nor  the  creator 
of  all ;  "  but  he  is  the  greatest  creator  we  know  on  earth. " 
The  mystery  of  the  creator  of  all  was  unknowable. 
The  very  fact  of  pretending  to  solve  this  now  would 
make  a  man  ridiculous,  he  said.  He  rested  in  the  faith 
that  there  are  no  real  mysteries,  only  things  we  do  not 
yet  know.  "We  always  arrive  at  a  fact."  He  did  not 
believe  with  Comte  that  humanity  is  God.  "  Humanity 
is  not  God,  but  the  priesthood  of  God. " 

What  this  "whole"  God  is  of  which  we  are  a  part  no  one 
dare  say.     We  shall  never  know,  .  .  .  but  we  can  affirm, 


"Man,  the  Creator"  5 

and  we  will  affirm  that  we  are  a  part  of  it,  and  that  we  are 
every  day  creating  and  re-creating  ourselves  and  this  world 
in  which  we  live.  .  .  . 

Of  the  Most  High,  the  Lord  of  Hosts,  the  Almighty,  the 
Father,  the  Saviour,  the  only  face  that  man  has  seen,  the 
only  voice  that  man  has  heard,  the  only  hand  that  man  has 
touched,  have  been  the  face,  the  voice,  the  hand  of  man 
himself.  Through  man,  Buddha,  Moses,  Confucius,  Christ, 
Socrates,  has  every  Holy  Word  been  spoken. 

You  ask  my  religious  belief.  I  don't  know  how  better 
to  answer  that  than  to  send  you  the  .  .  .  report  of  a 
lecture1  I  delivered.  .  .  .  There  are  one  or  two  passages 
there  which  will  indicate  my  position  as  clearly  as  I  have 
thought  it  out.  I  put  God  and  Man  into  one  class,  and 
draw  no  dividing  line  between  them.  This  may  mean 
nothing  or  too  much  to  you,  but  it  has  gradually  grown .  and 
so  far  as  I  can  tell,  spontaneously,  in  me  into  a  firm  faith, 
and  a  very  inspiring  one. 

The  ideas  of  God,  immortality,  heaven,  were,  he  be- 
lieved, men's  ideals,  woven  by  their  own  hope,  poetic 
anticipations  of  what  man  by  his  divine  powers  was 
to  achieve.  Man  was  thus  creating  God.  His  image 
was  evolving,  as  man  evolved,  changing  with  our  en- 
larging vision.  The  conception  of  the  God  of  our  fathers 
as  it  emanated  from  mankind  under  monarchs  and  de- 
spots was  of  a  royal  deity.  The  greatest  religious  need 
now  was  to  abolish  this  King  God,  as  our  great  political 
need  had  been  to  abolish  the  King  man. 

Upon  this  overpowering  "God-will,"  men  shifted  the 
responsibility  that  lay  upon  their  own  creative  will. 
Our  partial  emancipation  from  this  idea  by  the  doctrine 
of  free  will  was  now  to  be  completed.  The  distance 
between  God  and  man  was  to  be  abolished,  and  in  this 

1  "The  Scholar  in  Contemporary  Practical  Questions." 


6  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

process  democracy  was  to  create  its  democratic  God. 
Thus  he  believed  that  there  was  nowhere  an  all-good, 
all-wise  God.  Modern  science  had  revealed  to  us  that 
there  was  nowhere  an  anterior  and  complete  body  of 
truths  nor  ever  will  be,  so  he  denied  that  there  existed 
a  perfect,  omnipotent  God.  The  presence  of  evil 
rendered  impossible  to  his  mind  this  dream.  Evil  he 
declared  to  be  an  intelligible  and  manageable  fact, 
and  defined  it  as  the  sum  of  the  things  not  yet  known, 
not  yet  done,  the  mistakes  and  shortcomings  of  the 
wills  struggling  to  control.  But  although  he  believed 
that  there  was  no  such  God  as  our  fathers  worshipped, 
he  joyously  reported  that  he  saw  everywhere  in  man 
and  nature  a  god-like  tendency,  making,  remaking, 
unmaking. 

The  actual  God  is  the  sum-total  of  matter  and  spirit,  of 
aspiration  and  achievement ;  the  God  of  the  future  is  what 
this  sum-total  may  be  under  progress. 

The  idea  of  the  perfect,  all-powerful  God  would,  he 
thought,  take  its  place  as  one  of  the  greatest  and  most 
useful  of  the  historic  fictions,  for  under  it  men  had  been 
able  to  unite  and  work.  Now  was  dawning  through 
science  and  conscience  the  era  when  they  would  be 
able  to  unite  in  themselves. 

The  greatest  evolution  that  is  in  progress  is  the  evolution 
of  mind.  The  most  thrilling  scene  in  the  drama  of  creation 
is  the  transformation  of  matter  into  life  and  life  into  God. 
Pushing  upward  and  outward  through  all  the  forms  of 
nature  is  life,  urging  on  all  the  variations  of  matter,  from 
the  mollusk  to  man,  in  perpetual  aspiration  to  express  itself 
better  and  better.  The  impulse  shaping  matter  from  within 
is  itself  limited,  imprisoned  by  matter  from  without.  It 
reaches  intelligence.  It  passes  on  to  conscious  will.  It 


"Man,  the  Creator"  7 

steps  up  to  conscience.  It  begins  to  unite  with  other 
minds.  It  forms  the  public  mind,  the  public  conscience. 
It  looks  towards  the  stars,  and  plans  the  signals  for  Mars. 
The  central  mind  which  will  direct  all  the  universe,  as  the 
mind  of  man  directs  his  body,  is  now  being  formed.  God 
is  growing.  This  universal  consciousness  we  call  God  which 
sees  all,  feels  all,  knows  all,  does  all,  is  now  in  process  of 
development.  It  is  becoming;  not  yet  is.  We  have  not 
carried  evolution  far  enough.  In  its  first  reaction  against 
an  impossible  God  and  against  the  absurdity  of  explaining 
the  imperfect  and  incomplete  creature  and  creation  by  a 
perfect  and  complete  God,  evolution  would  have  been  glad 
to  abolish  God  altogether.  But  evolutionary  thought  now 
sees  that  God  must  be  included  in  its  scheme,  but  as  a  God 
that  is  evolving.  Man  is  now  making  God.  God  is  the 
sum- total  of  our  ideals.  Matter  is  God  solid ;  God  is  matter 
loving. 

To  help  awaken  in  man  this  inspiring  faith,  and  to 
give  hints  of  the  joys,  solutions,  prizes  it  promised, 
was  the  main  argument  of  the  book  he  now  undertook. 

You  stand  at  last  revealed  to  yourselves  [was  its  apostro- 
phe to  man].  The  works  of  thousands  of  years  have  at 
last  brought  you  out  of  the  childhood  into  the  manhood  of 
the  race.  The  youth  now  knows  that  he  is  to  be  a  man — 
the  man  called  Million,  the  Son  of  Man,  the  Man  of  Man, 
and  his  prime  still  lies  before  him! 

All  the  marvels,  splendours,  conveniences,  and  tender- 
nesses we  call  Progress  are  but  a  faint  prophecy  of  the 
beauty  and  riches  and  love  with  which  society  will  burst 
into  bloom  when  its  creator,  man,  begins  to  live  his  new- 
found faith,  that  his  is  the  power  and  glory  and  his  the 
praise, 

This  was  the  faith  which  now  shed  its  radiance  over 
Lloyd's  outlook,  revealing  the  peace  that  was  to  succeed 


8  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

our  present  tragedies.  As  redeemer  of  himself,  man  was 
to  paint  beauty  into  the  forms  of  all  men,  and  to  create 
greater  and  sweeter  personalities  than  we  have  ever 
known.  "There  are  coming  greater  and  better  lovers 
of  men  even  than  Christ,  better  and  greater  because 
he  came  and  because  they  have  absorbed  him  and 
passed  on  to  still  higher  ground. " 

All  the  beauties  and  helps  of  the  old-fashioned  trust  in 
God  will  some  day  reappear  in  a  trust  in  man.  Each  of  us 
will  recognise  that  it  is  humanity  which  is  the  representa- 
tion of  the  God  he  has  been  worshipping,  praying  to,  loving, 
and  trusting,  and  will  transfer  his  loyalties  and  hopes  to  the 
really  "living  God",  man,  having  eyes  to  see  that  this  is 
he  that  will  make  him  walk  in  green  pastures  and  to  lie 
down  by  still  waters,  that  this  is  he  who  has  not  only  said : 
"Come  unto  me  all  ye  that  labour  and  I  will  give  you  rest," 
— but  has  made  the  saying  good  in  a  thousand  social  institu- 
tions,— political,  like  the  bankruptcy  laws, — voluntary, 
like  the  charities  and  philanthropies.  Then  we  will  have  a 
passion  of  love  .  .  .  for  humanity,  of  an  intensity  of  which 
a  faint  foretaste  is  given  now  by  our  love  of  an  adored 
mother,  and  by  the  devotion  of  the  heart  of  the  people  to 
their  Washingtons,  Lincolns,  Grants,  and  other  heroes. 

He  searched  in  Emerson  and  Mazzini,  his  great 
masters,  to  see  whether  they  had  foreseen  the  glory 
of  this  idea,  which  he  now  saw  evolving.  Mazzini  with 
his  strong  creative  inspiration  himself  lived  this  gos- 
pel of  man,  the  creator,  said  Lloyd  in  his  notes,  but  he 
failed  either  to  interpret  to  himself  its  real  meaning, 
or  to  philosophise  it  into  a  truth  for  revivifying  in 
mankind  a  new  God  in  place  of  its  lost  predestinating 
one.  In  Emerson,  much  more  than  in  Mazzini,  he 
saw  flashes  of  the  intuition.  Both  he  declared  led 
up  to  this  land,  but  stopped  short  of  entering  it,  or 


"Man,  the  Creator"  9 

of  showing  that  they  saw  it  other  than  as  "a  vague 
symbolical  region  of  inspiration." 

The  idea  of  heaven,  "the  most  popular  of  all  the 
Utopias,"  was  like  that  of  God  as  well,  a  creation  of 
man's  mind,  and  open  to  change  and  criticism.  It 
too  must  be  brought  to  earth  and  democratised.  Earth 
is  a  province  of  heaven,  he  said,  and  by  daily  celestial 
marches,  an  unending  series  of  aspirations  followed  by 
attainments,  it  was  in  man's  power  to  make  it  more  and 
more  of  a  heaven.  As  the  far-off  vision  of  the  old 
religion,  it  had  worked  great  good  in  keeping  alive 
man's  habit  of  hoping  and  praying,  but  the  time  had 
come  for  the  dream  to  be  interpreted  and  realised. 
One  day  his  mother,  who  loved  to  dwell  on  the  old 
visions  as  he  upon  the  new,  said  persuasively:  "Henry, 
here  is  something  I  want  you  to  read  about  the 
millennium. " 

"Oh,  no,"  he  said,  smiling  and  parrying  the  sugges- 
tion, "I  have  a  little  millennium  of  my  own." 

This  also  was  his  attitude  toward  "that  aspect  of 
heaven, ' ' — immortality.  It  was,  like  the  idea  of  equality , 
one  of  the  primary  intuitions  of  the  soul.  It  was  the 
word  of  an  ideal,  toward  which  men  feel  that  they  are 
working  their  way.  "The  eternal  life  is  the  life  we  are 
living  here  and  now,"  he  said.  He  often  spoke  of 
longing  to  live  hundreds  of  years  on  this  earth.  One 
summer  morning  at  Sakonnet  a  group  were  talking  of 
the  future  life  and  asked  him  how  long  he  would  like 
to  live.  "A  thousand  years  for  my  work,"  was  his 
answer,  "a  thousand  years  for  my  friends,  and  a 
thousand  years  for  the  companionship  of  my  books." 
I  remember  when  on  one  of  his  last  visits  to  his  home 
his  father  read,  in  family  worship,  the  words:  "And 
the  last  enemy  to  be  overcome  shall  be  death, "  as  we 


io  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

rose  from  our  knees  how  impressively  he  commented 
on  the  significance  of  that  forecast. 

His  six  notes  on  this  subject  reveal  his  uncertainty, 
even  in  guesses,  for  as  "mere  guesses"  he  described 
the  dicta  of  this  belief.  ' '  Whatever  there  may  be  to  say 
about  the  immortalities,"  he  wrote  in  1885,  "we  can- 
not know.  We  must  fit  ourselves  for  the  immortality 
we  firmly  have,  that  of  the  seed  which  leaves  our  body. " 
In  1888  he  questioned  the  impulse  which  made  one 
long  to  wake  again  the  same  erring  and  imperfect 
creature  that  lay  down ;  a  higher  and  better  impulse,  he 
thought,  would  need  only  the  inspiration  of  the  collec- 
tive immortality.  Next  he  depicted  all  real  life  as 
eternal  youth  wherein  the  spirit  was  ever  enlarging 
the  dominion  of  its  material  form.  Death  or  other 
accidents  interrupting  were  the  as  yet  imperfect 
powers  of  the  undeveloped  Man-God.  Even  our  short 
memories  could  record  the  lengthening  of  this  youth 
span.  He  believed  that  evolution  was  about  to  make 
one  of  its  great  leaps  whereby  the  mystery  of  the  dead 
souls  would  be  unlocked,  their  power  released,  and 
immortal  spiritual  youth  would  be  incarnate  in  per- 
petually youthful  matter.  He  sometimes  wondered 
whether  immortality  might  not  be  individual  as  well 
as  social,  and  physical  as  well  as  spiritual,  whether 
it  was  a  prize  which  all  would  win,  and  suggested  that 
if  the  mind  was  the  creator  of  the  body  it  might  in 
another  stage  of  existence  create  for  itself  a  better 
body,  and  soul  recognise  soul,  through  all  the  new 
investiture.  With  the  assertion  in  1892  that  an 
impenetrable  veil  hid  the  future  life  from  our  view  the 
subject  is  dropped,  except  for  a  statement  of  his  belief 
that  the  only  immortality  which  poets,  seers,  or  state 
builders  will  achieve  is  through  that  part  of  their  words 


"Man,  the  Creator"  n 

or  works  which  have  entered  into  the  life  of  the  common 
people. 

In  his  work  as  creator,  man,  he  said,  is  now  to  study 
the  social  forces  with  the  same  care  that  scientists  have 
given  to  the  material  world.  One  of  the  greatest,  ap- 
parently the  original  of  them  all,  is  love.  It  will  be  found 
to  be  governed  by  laws  as  calculable  and  invariable  as 
those  of  mechanical  application  or  chemical  combina- 
tion. It  needs  now  to  be  brought  down  from  its  exalted 
position  and  shown  to  be  of  universal  and  ordinary 
application.  A  section  of  his  book  was  given  to  a 
preliminary  analysis  of  its  qualities.  One  was  that  it 
develops  wherever  men  are  brought  in  contact.  To- 
day a  new  human  contact  is  taking  place,  vaster  than 
any  the  world  has  known,  breaking  up  the  surfaces  of 
faith,  tranquil  for  centuries,  as  nothing  has  done  since 
the  birth  of  Christianity.  "Our  time  by  all  its  signs 
manifestly  approaches  one  of  the  great  crises  which 
have  marked  off  history  into  eras."  In  the  world  of 
business  and  industry  new  international  multitudes 
are  coming  together,  and  a  union  of  all  men  is  in  progress. 
A  new  social  love  is  thereby  being  generated  and 
organised.  The  new  union  is  the  labour  movement, 
and  the  new  love  is  the  great  religious  bond  which 
it  is  in  travail  to  create.  None  of  the  existing  relig- 
ions are  co-extensive  with  this  human  union  which  is 
larger  than  the  greatest  society,  church,  or  government. 
The  religion  thus  being  generated  is  the  religion  of  * 
labour.  It  is  to  be  the  voice  of  the  people  and  not  of  » 
a  hidden  God.  It  is  not  to  deal  with  mysteries  or  the 
supernatural.  One  of  the  ideas  to  which  it  is  to  be 
consecrated  is  that  the  wealth  which  all  produce,  all 
must  share.  It  is  not  to  be  in  conflict  with  science, 
but  a  part  of  it.  "The  faith  that  moves  mountains," 


12  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

he  said  characteristically,  "is  the  faith  that  puts 
tunnels  through  them,  and  that  levels  obstructions 
with  dynamite  and  steam-dredge."  Its  church  is  to  be 
"a  church  of  the  deed,  with  love  its  religion,  work  its 
worship,  humanity  the  congregation,  and  the  golden 
rule  its  creed.  .  .  .  The  Christ  to-day  is  not  the 
incarnation  who  is  repeating  the  golden  rule,  but  the 
incarnations  who  are  living  it."  It  is  to  develop  a 
government  without  politics,  a  religion  without  a 
church.  Thus  all  work  for  society  from  highest  to 
lowest  is  to  be  illuminated  by  this  moral  aim,  all 
workers  are  to  be  conscious  worshippers. 

On  some  Labour  Day  a  new  spiritual  revelation  will 
descend  on  the  congregation  of  the  workers,  which  will 
revoke  the  ancient  curse  against  labour,  and  in  setting  all  to 
labour  for  others  as  they  would  that  others  should  labour  for 
them,  will  make  labour  free,  fruitful,  and  reciprocal,  and 
therefore  the  greatest  of  earthly  blessings,  the  surest 
foundation  of  law  and  order,  and  the  highest  act  of  worship 
in  the  religion  of  love  and  the  golden  rule,  making  man  the 
creator  of  a  diviner  life  "on  earth  as  it  is  in  heaven."1 

The  new  union  must  have  a  name  and  a  flag,  he 
said.  It  is  so  far  along  that  it  is  waiting  for  a  voice, 
for  a  fresh  welling  of  love  for  men  out  of  some  in- 
spired heart.  The  new  religion  is  to  be  an  expansion 
of  Christianity.  The  special  work  of  Christianity  in 
asserting  the  brotherhood  of  humanity,  was  a  revolu- 
tion, but  one  intermediate  to  another.  It  was  a  theory 
expressed  with  a  perfection  never  to  be  excelled,  but 
which  must  now  be  put  into  practice.  "This  is  the 
religion,  the  revolution  that  is  now  impending,"  he 
wrote  in  1888.  "It  has  begun  and  begun  well."  He 

1  New  York  Journal,  Labour  Day,  September  6,  1898. 


"Man,  the  Creator"  13 

believed  that  Christ  was  the  founder  of  modern  demo- 
cracy, that  his  religion  was  politics  in  embryo.  Our 
task  is  now  to  apply  it  to  the  full  circle  of  human 
association.  He  said  that  we  must  be  ready  to  see 
truth,  "even  if  Christ  failed  to  see  it,"  that  Christ  who 
himself  declared  that  he  had  not  told  the  whole  truth 
would  be  the  first  one  to  wish  to  see  his  system  improved 
and  enlarged. 

Were  he  here  he  would  most  earnestly  implore  us  not  to 
preach  the  better  life,  the  hopes  of  Heaven,  in  impersona- 
tions of  Christ.  He  would  lament  that  thus  the  upspringing 
creative  god-like  capability  of  man  should  be  ...  hidden 
from  itself.  Do  not  believe  in  me,  he  would  say,  as  any- 
thing but  one  of  you,  and  as  an  illustration  of  humanity. 

It  was  enough  for  Christ  to  state  his  revolutionary 
doctrine  of  the  spiritual  equality  of  all  men,  and  pay 
for  it  with  his  life.  Bowing  to  the  inevitable,  he  coupled 
it  with  an  acceptance  of  the  existing  regime,  and  with  a 
policy  of  resignation.  He  did  this  in  order  to  be  heard 
at  all.  Tens  of  centuries  have  been  needed  for  the 
penetration  of  this  idea.  But  we  must  be  ready  now, 
said  Lloyd,  to  respond  to  a  higher  inspiration  still 
which  tells  us  not  to  be  content  with  the  ills  of  life. 

The  Christ  that  was,rtaught  resignation  to  the  ills  of  life, 
— hands  must  be  kept  off  till  heads  had  thought  it  all  out 
clear  and  straight, — revolting  from  the  lusts  of  the  flesh  of 
the  great,  he  taught  indifference  to  the  body.  The  Christ 
that  will  be  shall  teach  no  submission;  resistance  to  tyrants 
is  obedience  to  God,  everywhere,  in  industry  just  as  much  as 
in  politics,  in  the  factory,  or  mine,  just  as  much  as  in  the 
State  House.  The  Christ  that  will  be,  revolted  by  the 
torture  of  the  flesh  of  the  weak  by  the  strong,  shall  teach 
the  highest  care  of  the  body,  the  temple  of  the  spirit.1 

1  Note-book,  1888. 


14  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

He  wrote  to  a  correspondent  in  1897: 

Christ  seems  to  me  of  value  only  as  a  symbolical  figure 
illustrating  the  possibilities  of  humanity;  and  I  think  the 
inspiration  of  the  future  will  come  from  the  vision  to  the 
people  that  there  is  in  every  one  of  them  a  possible  Christ 
and  an  actual  God. 

And  again: 

We  are  acquiring  the  intellectual  muscle  to  winnow  the 
chaff  from  the  universal  and  permanent  beauties  which  the 
Christian  legend  has  inherited  and  created,  to  interpret 
these  and  the  aspirations  of  our  progenitors  that  accepted 
them  in  terms  of  the  everlasting  religion,  and  to  proceed  to 
the  delights  and  achievements,  the  meditations  and  deeds 
of  a  higher  life,  the  self-conscious,  creative  use  of  the  human 
will  to  do  divine  work. 

The  new  religion  is,  he  said,  to  save  all  men,  to  hold 
sacred  the  body,  to  ensure  a  sufficient  reward  to-day; 
its  first  work  will  be  justice,  and  the  grosser  the  in- 
justice the  more  material  and  physical  will  be  its  work 
until  the  wrong  is  righted.  It  is  to  achieve  peace  in 
industry  and  politics,  which  is  the  great  aspiration 
and  the  great  need  of  the  people.  It  is  to  attack  the 
worst  infidelity  of  all,  the  disbelief  of  the  people  in 
their  own  creative  powers;  the  worst  atheism,  that  the 
ideas  of  God  and  Christianity  need  not  prevail  in  the 
world  of  industry. 

The  new  era  is  ushering  itself  in  by  a  new  religion,  and 
that  religion  is  not  to  be  the  Christian  religion — but  an 
expansion  of  it.  The  use  of  the  Christian  religion  as  the 
standard  of  the  new  movement  is  not  leadership  but 
reaction,  religious  reaction,  and  a  tactical  mistake.  It 
infallibly  breeds  controversies,  heresy  hunts,  troubles.  The 


"Man,  the  Creator"  15 

men  who  say  Lord,  Lord,  most  loudly  are  the  very  men 
wanted  least.  There  will  be  only  one  form  of  worship  in 
the  new  religion — work.  But  one  form  of  prayer — as- 
piration. There  will  not  be  one  dividing  line — neither  of 
creed,  nationality,  property,  or  anything  else.  Man  is 
slowly  being  revealed  to  himself..,  The  word  the  world 
waits  for  to-day  will  come  from  those  who  can  disclose  to 
humanity  that  the  perfections  it  has  been  attributing  to 
its  gods  are  sparks  struck  out  of  the  goodnesses  it  feels 
stirring  within  itself.  Mankind  struggling  up  out  of  the 
mud  has  not  dared  to  think  of  itself  as  the  nebula  in  which 
was  contained  shining  star  stuff.  But  it  is  coming  to  feel 
that  it  does  not  need  to  be  divine  by  proxy  any  longer. 

Men  are  weary  of  being  exhorted  to  love  one  another, 
he  said.  Their  need  now  is  for  leaders  who  will 
prove  to  them  that  they  are  already  doing  so,  who  will 
in  plain  terms  and  concrete  facts  convince  them  that 
love  is  already  the  creative  force  underlying  their 
institutions.  "  Over  and  over  again  let  us  tell  men  that 
it  is  love  by  which  they  live  to-day  in  every  association 
which  has  made  life  together  practical  and  profitable. " 

Humanity!  You  do  love!  You  have  established  self- 
sacrifice  as  the  law  of  life  together !  You  have  proved  it  to 
be  the  saving  of  the  life,  not  the  losing  of  it.  You  have 
founded  the  new  school  of  political  economy  of  service  for 
service;  the  new  church  where  all  are  the  Father,  the 
Creator,  the  Redeemer;  in  which  every  son  of  man  is  the 
Son  of  God,  and  where  the  Son  of  Man  is  born  again  every 
day. 

This  heritage  of  hope  which  he  was  planning  to 
bequeath  to  his  generation  was  not  woven  from  joy. 
In  rare  moments  came  revealing  glimpses  of  anguish 
not  guessed  by  those  who  saw  in  his  gracious,  mirthful 
personality  only  the  man  who  dealt  with  the  practical 


1 6  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

problems  of  the  day.  Upon  such  a  soul  as  his,  and  such  a 
creed,  man's  destiny  laid  a  heavy  hand  of  responsibility. 
In  the  deep  melancholy  and  discouragement  which 
sometimes  visited  him,  he  had  not  the  consolation  of 
feeling  that  a  higher  power  was  directing  human  de- 
stinies. "I  would  give  everything  I  possess  in  the 
world,"  he  said,  "if  I  could  believe  in  the  guidance  of 
a  heavenly  father."  But  "the  propulsive,  far-thrown 
soul"  of  his  youth  was  ever  urging  him  onward.  Out 
of  his  own  travail  he  has  helped  to  create  a  hope  for 
mankind,  out  of  his  longings  woven  prophecies  of  joy. 
Nowhere  does  his  love  of  man  more  clearly  shine  than 
in  this  manuscript.  It  is  pervaded  by  a  far-reaching 
gentleness  as  of  one  brooding  tenderly  over  humanity's 
problems  and  striving  to  shed  over  our  coming  struggles 
the  light  of  a  peace  beyond.  Over  the  din  of  our  in- 
dustrial battles,  it  rings  its  note  of  hope;  it  radiates 
strength  and  joy.  It  tells  us  that  we  need  not  destroy, 
but  merely  continue  in  our  present  line  of  progress. 
It  points  out  that  we  are  even  now  beautiful  in  ways 
we  dreamed  not  of.  It  turns  the  commercial  scowl 
into  a  smile  of  fellowship,  declaring  that  the  world  has 
outgrown  hatred,  transforms  the  terror  of  sacrifice 
into  the  joy  of  service,  and  makes  clear  the  exaltation 
of  martyrdom.  Before  it  our  limitations  dwindle,  for 
ours  is  the  strength  of  all  strengths,  ours  the  infinite 
variety  of  all  powers. 

Now  we  know  that  war,  slavery,  tyranny,  poverty,  dis- 
ease are  doomed.  Every  foot  bruises  their  heads.  We 
know  that  if  we  see  misery  it  is  because  we  are  looking  back. 
Looking  forward  we  see  the  certainties  of  myriads  of  joys. 

Thus  between  the  two  stages  of  his  work,  Lloyd 
paused,  and  looking  with  clear  gaze  backward  over  the 


"Man,  the  Creator"  17 

ages  and  as  far  ahead  as  he  could  see,  wrote  down  the 
truth  as  he  saw  it. 

The  manuscript  was  not  finished.  In  the  main,  it 
consists  of  the  study  of  the  social  force,  love;  of  the 
godhood  of  man;  of  the  new  universal  religion  of 
labour;  of  the  coming  peace  which  labour  is  to 
achieve.  In  the  latter  section  he  first  elaborates  the 
idea  that  we  are  to  "supersede  politics  by  education," 
and  prefigures  our  escape  from  the  evils  of  our  present 
politics  by  an  education  which  will  fit  all  citizens  for 
the  service  of  the  state  and  for  all  other  social  service. 
Very  exalted  is  his  interpretation  of  art  as  a  province 
of  the  creative  realm.  "Art  is  nature  creating  itself." 
The  artist  prefigures  in  pigments  or  cadences  what 
humanity  is  to  accomplish  in  living  materials,  and  by  his 
ideal  presentations  keeps  us  from  heartbreaks  over 
the  failures  of  the  actual  performance.  "The  highest 
of  the  arts  to  which  we  may  look  forward  is  this  art 
of  the  creation  of  a  new  man  by  himself. " 

It  is  perhaps  too  soon  to  measure  the  real  value  of 
this  manuscript,  usually  called  by  him  "the  MS.  of 
1896."  It  reveals  an  exalted  mind,  and  contains  truth 
of  divine  radiance,  none  the  less  profound  because 
simply  expressed.  Having  finished  the  first  draft,  he 
locked  it  in  his  Winnetka  safe,  and  drew  a  memorandum 
recommending  that  in  case  of  his  death  a  friend  should 
edit  and  publish  a  collection  of  paragraphs  from  this 
and  from  his  notes — "the  whole  seeking  to  indicate 
that  theory  of  the  creative  function  of  man  which  is 
glanced  at  in  the  sentence1:  'If  God  should  stop  at 
perfection,  man  would  pass  him  by.' "  He  was  to  recur 
to  it  as  to  a  congenial  task  in  tranquil  moments  of  crea- 

1  From  the  Commencement  address  at  Iowa  College,  "The  Scholar 
in  Contemporary  Practical  Questions,"  1895. 


VOL.    II — 2 


18 


tive  energy.  In  the  meantime  he  took  upon  himself 
more  humble  labours.  Lloyd  seldom  told  the  whole 
truth  as  he  saw  it.  He  will  usually  be  found  saying 
that  phase  or  that  part  of  it  which  the  practical  need  of 
the  time  and  place  demanded.  The  duty  before  us  to- 
day, he  said,  is  to  study  not  as  poet,  prophet,  or  priest, 
but  as  prosaic,  scientific  investigator — "not  a  task  in 
which  glory  can  be  won  or  great  philosophic  renown 
achieved,  but  it  is  one  in  which  great  service  may  be 
rendered  the  cause  of  the  emancipation  of  mankind." 
Thus  postponing  "the  luxury  of  dreaming,"  he  turned 
to  work  in  the  laboratory  of  society. 

Labour  is  the  universal  religion;  it  has  its  moments  of 
exaltation,  but  not  less  religious  are  the  daily  recurring 
hours  of  drudgery  and  routine. 


CHAPTER  XVI 


AN  immediate  need  was  that  the  people  apply  their 
creative  energy  to  the  money  side  of  the  social 
problem. 

This  Free  Silver  movement  [Mr.  Lloyd  wrote  to  a 
correspondent,  in  1896]  has  convinced  me  that  the  people 
do  not  begin  to  understand  the  money  question.  The 
Greenback  movement,  though  nearer  mere  monetary  truth 
than  the  Silver  one,  failed  and  I  think  deservedly  for  this 
reason.  It  did  not  see  that  as  money  is  only  an  inter- 
mediary, the  money  question  is  only  an  intermediary  one. 
We  shall  have  a  true  money  only  when  we  have  one  pro- 
duced in  connection  with  a  positive  and  creative  programme 
of  social  reconstruction.  Men  must  be  emancipated  for  the 
reciprocal  life  of  service  for  service,  and  these  services  must 
have  their  medium  of  reciprocity  or  exchange.  The  failure 
of  all  our  past  agitations  on  tariff,  land,  transportation, 
trusts,  labour,  and  capital  indicates  strongly  that  the  body 
of  reform  thought  has  not  yet  been  completed.  There  is 
still  a  missing  link  in  the  chain  of  principles.  The  philosophy 
of  the  people  has  not  yet  been  thought  out.  To  suppose 
that  any  scheme  for  the  enfranchisement  of  life  could 
command  the  moral  and  intellectual  forces  necessary  for 
its  success  while  so  important  a  part  of  the  problem  as  the 
creation  of  the  services  and  their  medium  of  reciprocation 
was  not  ready  to  be  solved  by  a  considerable  number  of  the 

19 


20  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

reform  party,  is  to  suppose  the  impossible.  The  revolution 
now  in  progress  is  not  a  little  one.  It  is  nothing  less 
important  than  the  genesis  of  a  new  era,  as  great  a  land- 
mark in  history  as  the  Christian  era.  It  will  move  slowly 
until  the  leaders  of  the  party  are  in  possession  of  a  definite 
and  symmetrical  body  of  truths,  in  which  they  can  drill 
their  followers  so  that  these  will  have  a  common  standard 
by  which  they  can  act  together  without  leaders. 

He  began  to  study  the  money  question  more  pro- 
foundly than  ever  before.  His  financial  editorials 
written  for  the  Chicago  Tribune  in  i878-'9,  advocat- 
ing the  free  coinage  of  silver,  were  now  used  in  the 
Populist  campaign  as  arguments  against  the  "gold-bug " 
editorials  of  that  paper.  He  was  as  keenly  searching 
for  truth  as  then.  He  was  reading  a  score  of  financial 
authorities,  especially  Jevons  and  Colwell.  He  was 
greatly  impressed  by  the  Guernsey  Market  House 
Plan  of  Payments,  as  described  in  a  pamphlet  under 
that  title  by  Albert  Kimsey  Owen. 

His  constructive  thought  he  gave  out  under  the  title 
The  Money  of  the  New  Conscience.  It  filled  his  let- 
ters and  addresses.  In  the  manuscript  of  the  speech 
undelivered  at  the  St.  Louis  convention,  he  had  pictur- 
esquely expressed  his  belief  in  a  currency  redeemable  not 
in  gold  alone, — "the  solidified  gall  of  greed  and  injus- 
tice,"— nor  in  gold  and  silver,  but  in  all  the  products 
of  human  labour;  not  "a  greenback,"  he  said,  but  "a 
red,  white,  and  blue  back."  It  formed  the  subject  of 
his  address  before  the  Social  and  Economic  Confer- 
ence held  at  Chicago  Commons  and  Hull  House, 
December  7-12, 1896.  No  copy  has  been  found  of  this 
address.  Jane  Addams  said  she  had  never  heard  a 
finer  one.  All  that  remains  is  a  fragment  mercilessly 
ridiculed  by  the  press,  in  which  he  said  that  an  adequate 


"The  Money  of  the  New  Conscience"    21 

money  reform  would  go  far  to  employ  the  idle  labour 
of  the  world : 

And  if  the  idle  labour  of  the  world  could  be  employed, — if 
the  idle  soldiers  of  the  world  could  be  set  to  work,  and  if  all 
the  other  idlers  could  be  turned  from  their  idleness,  we 
could  do  anything  in  the  world  that  we  wanted  to  do.  The 
first  year,  we  could  take  the  women  and  children  out  of  the 
shops  and  factories  and  send  them  home,  to  stay  home. 
The  second  year,  we  could  buy  up  all  the  monopolies,  and 
begin  to  administer  them  for  the  benefit  of  the  people.  The 
third  we  could  rebuild  the  slums  in  all  the  cities  of  the 
world.  The  fourth  year  we  could  give  to  every  child  the 
beginnings  of  an  education  which  could  go  on  to  college  and 
university.  The  fifth  year,  by  applying  labour  adequately 
to  cleanliness  and  isolation  and  proper  nursing,  we  could 
abolish  all  the  contagious  diseases.  The  sixth  year,  we 
could  pay  all  the  national  debts  of  the  world.  And  the 
seventh  year, — and  the  seventh  year  [he  cried,  with  ris- 
ing emphasis  and  eagerness]  the  seventh  year  we  could  do 
what  we  are  told  the  Creator  of  the  Universe  did  after 
his  six  days  of  labour  of  creation.  We  could  rest  and  look 
upon  our  work  and  behold  that  it  was  good.1 

So  serious  seemed  the  people's  lack  of  understanding 
and  the  consequent  wreck  just  witnessed  of  a  splendid 
advance  movement  that  he  decided  to  write  a  book 
on  the  vital  subject  of  money.  As  a  science  of  debt 
payable  on  demand,  of  property  able  to  be  instantly 
cashed,  it  was  a  science  of  society  at  its  most  sensitive, 
complicated,  and  critical  point.  "A  disorder  there  is 
like  one  in  the  head  or  the  heart  of  man. "  He  did  not 
agree  with  Gladstone  that  the  surest  way  to  the  mad- 
house was  the  study  of  the  currency  question;  but  he 
believed  it  had  been  made  difficult  by  a  befuddled 

1  From  the  sympathetic  report  of  Mr.  Lloyd's  address  in  Chicago 
Commons,  December,  1896. 


22  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

presentation.  In  1882  he  had  said  in  the  Atlantic 
Monthly  that  a  new  book  on  money  was  needed  which 
should  generalise  its  facts  "in  terms  intelligible  to 
common  people,  business  men,  other  economists — 
and  the  author. "  He  accordingly  began  to  write  what 
he  hoped  to  make  a  clear,  basic  treatment,  such  as 
laymen  could  understand,  one  written  from  the  stand- 
point of  the  people  and  not  of  the  financiers. 

The  people  may  rest  assured  of  one  thing :  they  will  never 
have  a  currency  which  will  be  for  the  people  until  it  is  of 
the  people.  Not  until  they  have  mastered  the  work  which 
currency  must  do  and  the  principles  on  which  it  should  be 
provided,  will  there  be  a  good  money — good  morally  and 
economically.  As  long  as  the  supply  of  currency  is  left  to 
"  God, "  it  will  be  like  the  other  work  of  inferior  nature,  the 
sport  of  accident,  and  mistake,  and  the  product  of  the 
grosser  "laws"  of  matter  and  force.  Not' until  it  is  taken 
in  hand  by  the  highest  will  that  has  to  do  with  social  affairs 
— the  will  of  conscious  and  conscientious  man — will  it  rise 
in  its  development  above  the  slow  and  torturing  evolution 
by  which  the  lower  forms  of  life  have  been  evolved.  Its 
perfect  social  development  will  not  come  until  it  has  been 
brought  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  people, — when  there 
comes  to  be  such  a  body.  As  long  as  the  forms  and  uses  of 
money  are  fixed  by  individuals  or  classes  so  long  will  these 
have  a  class  and  sinister  purpose  and  effect. 

He  wrote  in  1897  to  Professor  Richard  T.  Ely,  whom 
he  often  consulted  as  one  "wise  and  experienced,  wholly 
on  the  side  of  the  people  " : 

I  am  greatly  your  debtor  for  your  remarks  about  my 
utterances  on  the  money  question  and  shall  make  them  the 
subject  of  prayerful  consideration.  What  you  wrote  to 
me  with  regard  to  the  silver  question  was  of  very  great  use, 
and  I  will  get  out  of  this  all  that  I  can.  Let  me  say, 


"  The  Money  of  the  New  Conscience"    23 

however,  with  equal  frankness,  that  my  present  impressions 
are  that,  without  a  thorough  understanding  of  the  money 
question,  the  labour  question,  the  monopoly  question,  the 
social  question  can  never  be  settled;  and  I  believe  the 
money  institutions  of  society  to  be  as  crude  and  as  cruel  as 
any  other  of  the  economic  institutions,  and  that  they  have 
been  as  thoroughly  usurped  to  the  benefit  of  the  few  as  the 
other  forms  of  industrial  control.  I  think  that  instead  of 
the  money  question  being  dropped  it  has  got  to  be  brought 
forward  and  kept  to  the  fore  as  an  indispensable  part  of  the 
social  program.  ...  I  will  send  you  my  reply  to  a  recent 
editorial  in  the  Evening  Post.  .  .  .  The  position  I  take  in 
my  addresses  is  that  the  great  mistake  made  by  the  Green- 
backers  and  the  Free-Silver  men  was  in  holding  that  there 
could  be  a  social  reform  brought  about  by  money  reform 
alone ;  and  to  illustrate  the  futility  of  this  idea,  I  show  that 
if  every  man,  woman,  and  child  in  the  United  States  was 
given  to-morrow  morning  a  million  dollars  in  standard 
gold  coin,  this  money  before  the  end  of  a  few  years,  if 
our  present  institutions  of  monopoly  and  our  present 
methods  of  competition  and  concentration  were  left  un- 
disturbed, would  have  been  all  absorbed  by  our  trusts  and 
monopolies.  .  .  . 

The  high  purpose  of  his  book  is  best  stated  by  himself : 

The  purpose  of  The  Money  of  the  New  Conscience  is 
not  only  to  make  people  believe  that  they  are  far  enough 
along  in  their  moral  development  to  have  a  better  money 
than  gold  or  silver,  but  also  to  enable  them  to  see  that  great 
wealth  will  be  the  reward  of  their  cultivation  of  the  moral 
qualities  which  will  qualify  them  to  adopt  this  better 
money.  The  Money  of  the  New  Conscience  is  in  fact 
written  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  highest  science  of  all — 
that  which  not  only  tells  men  what  is  but  what  ought  to  be, 
not  only  what  they  are  but  what  they  ought  to  be.  It  is  a 
work  of  moral  science,  but  of  moral  science  applied  to  the 


24  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

definite  task  of  helping  men  to  grow  rich.  The  wealth  it 
spurs  men  on  to  is  riches  in  which  none  grow  poor  for  the 
aggrandisement  of  others — the  only  wealth  that  cannot  be 
lost  or  stolen. 


Thus  he  confessed  at  once  that  his  treatise  was  to  be  a 
mixture  of  ethics  and  economics,  for  there  lay  the  heart 
of  the  question,  namely,  that  money  was  an  institution 
which  took  its  form  from  the  moral  qualities  of  the 
people.  If  they  could  trust  each  other,  their  money 
would  show  it.  The  growing  ideality  and  unity  which 
was  pressing  for  embodiment  in  all  other  branches  of  our 
economic  structure  must  appear  in  our  money  as  well. 
It  demanded  not  merely  that  we  use  well  what  we  have, 
but  that  we  create  a  better  form. 

From  the  standpoint,  then,  of  ethics  and  of  man  as  a 
conscious  creator  of  society,  he  surveyed  in  detail  our 
present  financial  system.  He  wished  to  recall  men  from 
the  paralysing  attitude  of  the  political  economists 
who,  not  yet  imbued  with  the  new  spirit  of  evolution, 
would  have  them  leave  their  money  to  the  supposed 
unerring  beneficence  of  "natural  laws."  He  appealed 
to  them  to  win,  by  their  own  creative  interference, 
another  step  upward  in  the  question  of  the  means  of 
exchange.  The  greatest  obstacle  in  the  path  was  "the 
specie  superstition."  To  the  folly  and  harm  of  this  he 
devoted  a  large  part  of  the  manuscript.  As  to  whether 
money  could  properly  be  made  out  of  other  things  than 
gold,  he  said  that  question  had  been  answered  in  the 
affirmative  by  the  practices  of  financial  men.  There 
were  only  two  points  left  in  controversy, — was  gold  a 
measure  of  value,  and  must  currency  be  redeemable 
in  gold?  When  we  had  emancipated  ourselves  from  the 
idea  that  gold  was  a  measure  of  value  and  was  itself 


"The  Money  of  the  New  Conscience"    25 

practically  unchangeable  in  value,  he  said  we  would  be 
free  to  see  that  all  commodities  and  services  are  measur- 
able only  at  the  bar  of  social  opinion;  that  value  is  an 
ever-changing  relation  between  two  objects,  and  its 
fixation  a  department  of  public  opinion  and  one  of  the 
most  complicated  processes  of  the  social  mind ;  we  would 
see  it  as  a  composite  of  the  opinions  of  all,  changing 
with  every  different  mind,  and  with  every  new  condi- 
tion of  supply  and  demand.  We  would  then  realise 
that  the  material  gold  on  which  the  verdict  of  value 
is  written  is  of  no  more  consequence,  so  far  as  the  value 
is  concerned,  than  the  material  on  which  any  other 
law  is  written.  Like  a  child  being  taught  to  trust  its 
legs,  the  world  now  needed  to  learn  that  gold  had  been 
a  symbol,  an  illustration  in  trade. 

The  next  great  step  in  monetary  science  and  in  social 
science  will  be  taken  when  a  people  comes  that  is  able  to 
generalise  the  idea  that  shines  out  of  the  gold,  and  see  that 
it  is  as  unnecessary  for  an  enlightened  people  to  use  gold  to 
express  and  exchange  values  as  to  have  idols  to  personify 
the  gods,  or  gods  to  personify  the  virtues  of  man. 

He  believed  that  it  would  be  a  great  help  in  clari- 
fying the  people's  comprehension  that  there  is  no 
longer  any  need  of  gold  as  a  basis  of  money,  if  the  names 
of  the  money  of  account — that  is,  the  money  which 
people  used  in  their  trading,  their  talk,  their  book- 
keeping— did  not  correspond  with  the  names  of  the 
coins.  He  became  convinced  of  the  truth  of  Colwell's 
demonstration  that  when  gold  and  silver  coin  are 
referred  to  in  trade,  it  is  not  as  gold  and  silver  coins 
in  reality,  but  only  as  denominations  in  the  money  of 
account.  The  dollar  coin  means  a  certain  quantity 
of  gold,  the  "dollar"  in  trade  has  in  reality  no  refer- 


26  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

ence  to  the  coin;  the  coin  is  not  used  as  a  measure  or 
standard.  It  costs,  said  Lloyd,  a  severe  mental  effort 
to  realise  that,  as  Colwell  says,  when  the  coins  are 
actually  employed  in  trade  their  value  is  as  necessary 
to  be  stated  in  money  of  account  as  any  other  article. 
If  the  names  were  made  to  differ,  Lloyd  said  that  there 
would  be  removed  the  main  obstacle  to  the  people's 
seeing  that  gold  was  not  the  standard  of  value  and  that 
it  was  not  necessary  to  go  on  with  the  so-called  gold 
basis.  A  practical  way,  he  suggested  in  a  note,  might 
be  to  coin  gold  only  in  eagles  and  double  eagles  and 
call  them  only  by  those  names,  and  coin  no  silver  larger 
than  a  half  dollar.  Social  experience  furnishes  many 
proofs  that  people  could  trade  on  the  greatest  scale 
with  no  coins  corresponding  to  the  money  of  account. 
If  the  precious  metals  were  demonetised  entirely  and 
performed  their  financial  functions  everywhere  as  they 
do  now  in  international  trade,  by  weight  and  commodity 
value,  the  public  mind  would  be  emancipated  from  its 
confusion.  By  having  the  names  the  same,  it  came 
about  that  every  change  in  the  value  of  the  pieces  of 
metal  caused  by  such  influences  as,  for  instance,  the 
discovery  of  new  mines,  produced  a  change  in  the 
value  of  the  people's  units  of  calculation.  The  fluctua- 
tions of  gold,  instead  of  affecting  gold  as  a  commodity, 
affected  all  values  in  the  market  by  its  special  relation 
to  the  word  "dollar."  That  one  commodity  should 
thus  violently  and  suddenly  affect  all  market  calcula- 
tions was  unreasonable  and  unnecessary. 

As  to  the  system  of  the  gold  basis  for  the  payment  of 
debts  inaugurated  by  "the  pioneer  of  modern  banking, 
the  Bank  of  England,"  and  slavishly  imitated  by 
America,  he  outlined  exhaustively  its  defects. 

The  bank  act  of  1 844  made  the  unpardonable  mistake  of 


"The  Money  of  the  New  Conscience"    27 

causing  the  circulation  of  paper  money  to  fluctuate  with  the 
amount  of  gold  and  silver  on  hand.  This  system  put  the 
cart  before  the  horse  by  making  the  amount  of  industry 
dependent  upon  the  volume  of  the  currency,  whereas  the 
true  system  is  the  opposite — the  graduation  of  the  amount 
of  the  currency  according  to  the  value  of  the  productive 
industry  of  the  country.  This  system  has  been  the  parent 
of  panics.1 

As  it  had  long  since  become  evident  that  there  was 
not  gold  enough  even  for  the  reserves,  this  promise, 
impossible  of  fulfilment,  was  keeping  the  world  on  the 
nervous  edge  of  panics  and  bringing  the  misfortunes 
attendant  upon  all  lies.  It  was  making  of  the  financial 
system  "a  pyramid  on  its  apex,  with  the  rich  men  of  the 
world  sitting  in  deluded  safety  on  its  upturned  base  and 
the  poor  men  .  .  .  — working  men,  traders,  farmers, 
borrowers — trying  to  hold  up  its  ever-threatening  mass 
of  instability.  Every  few  years  it  topples  over  and  its 
victims  are  those  on  the  top  as  well  as  those  under- 
neath." 

.  .  .  Once  let  the  banks  abandon  the  impossible  and 
irrational  and  revolutionary  scheme  of  the  promise  to  pay 
on  demand  and  to  make  this  payment  in  gold,  and  let  the 
people  who  want  gold  get  gold,  as  those  who  want  wheat 
get  wheat,  and  the  financial  situation  will  be  for  ever  cleared 
of  one  great  cause  of  its  present  instability. 

The  credits  and  the  life  of  the  business  world  were 
now  sacrificed  to  a  demand  for  specie.  A  class  had 
arisen  who  were  able  to  command  the  gold  and  to  reap 
the  harvest  which  comes  with  its  appreciation.  In 
time  of  stringency  they  were  able  to  sweep  in  the 
people's  property. 

1  Chicago  Chronicle,  January  10,  1897. 


28  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

Given  a  system  of  industry  which  has  expanded  far 
beyond  any  adequate  support  in  gold,  and  a  system  of 
monopoly  which  gives  a  few  the  power  to  dictate  to  the 
people  what  they  shall  pay  and  how  many  obligations  they 
shall  have  saddled  on  them  .  .  .  and  the  result  must  be 
the  absorption  of  the  property  of  the  people  by  these 
monopolists  and  money  claim  holders. 

One  of  these  instances  against  which  he  protested 
loudly  was  the  recent  government  bond  issues  of  the 
years  1893-95,  in  President  Cleveland's  administration, 
a  deliberate  manipulation,  he  said,  of  the  supply  of 
gold  by  the  financial  class.  By  this  there  were  made  in 
time  of  peace  three  additions  to  the  funded  debt  in 
about  two  years.  The  bankers,  acting  on  the  prevail- 
ing morals  of  self-interest  alone,  unchecked  by  a 
social  conscience,  had  used  even  the  national  govern- 
ment for  their  private  gain.  Having  forced  a  contrac- 
tion of  the  currency,  they  then  brought  about  the 
issuance  of  fifty  millions  of  government  bonds  which 
were  privately  sold  to  them  on  their  own  terms.  When, 
to  cover  a  scandal,  the  last  bond  issue  was  thrown  open 
to  the  "public"  and  prated  of  as  a  "people's  affair," 
it  simmered  down  to  only  seventy-seven  people  hold- 
ing bonds  under  $1000,  all  the  other  holders  being 
big  "gold  bugs."  In  public  and  private  he  branded 
this  deal  and  wrote  an  article  about  it  in  the  Investors' 
Review  of  London,  April,  1896.  He  said  that  nothing 
of  a  greater  all-round  significance  had  happened  in 
America  for  years,  and  as  an  example  of  successful 
marauding  it  would  be  certain  to  have  many  imitators. 

Future  ages,  he  said,  would  hold  among  their  chief 
curiosities  of  dead  superstitions  the  opinions  and 
institutions  of  the  specie  money  men.  The  fact  that 
the  small  amount  of  money  used  in  ordinary  business 


"  The  Money  of  the  New  Conscience"    29 

is  emphasised  by  the  very  men  who  are  so  sedulously 
accumulating  gold  claims  against  the  public  should 
be  easily  interpreted,  he  said,  by  a  shrewd  community. 
"A  people  not  shrewd  enough  to  interpret  such  a  fact 
is  not  shrewd  enough  to  keep  its  liberties. " 

Besides  his  critical  analysis  of  the  specie  basis,  he 
thought  deeply  over  the  credit  system  and  the  con- 
structive side  of  the  problem.  In  our  dilemma,  he 
said  in  his  manuscript,  we  are  driven  to  monetary 
invention.  The  great  need  of  the  industrial  world  is 
more  credit,  and  always  more  credit.  For  this  the  vast 
new  energies  of  mankind  are  clamouring.  If  the 
financiers  of  the  world  should  prove  themselves  wise 
enough  to  realise  that  the  democratic  expansion  of 
credit  can  not  be  arrested  except  at  the  cost  of  univer- 
sal ruin,  especially  to  themselves,  and  if  they  should 
adopt  a  moderate  policy,  he  believed  it  would  be  pos- 
sible to  pass  into  a  system  of  democratised  finance  by 
evolutionary  methods,  and  the  change  be  made  almost 
insensibly.  As  it  is,  he  said,  they  are  likely  to  lose 
their  money  by  the  same  recoil  which  will  abolish  the 
institution  of  money  altogether. 

The  government  of  America  [he  said  in  an  English  news- 
paper at  this  time]  is  run  by  the  great  business  men,  and 
they  will  never  permit  the  gold  standard  to  be  disturbed. 

To  extricate  ourselves  would  not,  in  his  opinion, 
necessitate  repudiation.  He  believed  that  a  self- 
governing  people  should  stand  by  their  "bad  bargains. " 
While  admitting  the  uses  of  gold  in  the  past,  he  believed 
that  the  time  had  come  in  the  evolution  of  industry 
when  it,  like  silver,  should  be  demonetised.  As  a  re- 
sult existing  gold  contracts  need  not  be  interfered  with, 
but  could  be  enforced.  Even  government  bonds  could 


30  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

be  either  refunded,  or  paid  in  an  amount  of  the  ideal 
paper  which  would  purchase  the  needed  amount  of 
gold,  or  a  special  coinage  might  be  made  of  sufficient 
amount  for  the  payment  of  interest.  Only  money 
issued  for  gold  or  silver,  or  that  issued  with  the  promise 
of  redemption  in  gold  or  silver,  could  demand  such 
redemption.  But  no  more  such  money,  he  said,  should 
be  issued.  We  have  not  bargained  away  our  right  to 
coin  money.  We  can  make  all  our  other  trade  purchases, 
pay  all  our  other  debts  in  other  money.  The  inevitable 
conclusion  is,  he  said,  that  the  people  should  do  their 
ciphering  in  an  ideal  unit;  that  therefore  one  of  the 
first  things  to  be  learned  in  regard  to  the  money  ques- 
tion is  that  money  is  the  least  important  part  of  it. 
Credit  is  the  real  means  of  exchange. 

The  change  to  a  system  of  non-payment  in  full  in  cash 
on  demand,  and  of  non-redemption  in  gold  by  the  banks 
could  be  easily  made  through  the  clearing  houses.  Let  the 
clearing  house  organisation  be  so  extended  that  every 
check  issued  by  a  bank  will  be  for  all  purposes  of  security  as 
good  as  a  certified  check.  This  can  be  achieved  by  a  sys- 
tem of  insurance,  perhaps,  or  by  a  system  of  deposit  at 
Washington  by  all  national  banks  to  secure  depositors  as 
they  now  secure  note-holders.  That  the  banks  can  abund- 
antly protect  against  poor  bankers  is  placed  out  of  the 
realm  of  controversy  by  the  celerity  and  thoroughness  and 
timeliness  with  which  the  Chicago  banks  dispatched  the 
Illinois  National  Bank  to  the  unhappy  hunting  grounds  to 
which  bad  bankers  go.  This  insurance  will  go  to  the 
extent  only  of  making  every  check  good,  not  for  cash  (gold) 
on  demand,  but  receivable  by  any  clearing  house  bank  at 
its  face  in  the  payment  of  debts  due  there.  No  depositor 
under  this  system  would  have  the  right  to  go  to  his  bank 
and  draw  out  his  deposits  in  gold.  He  would  have  no 
desire  to  do  this  under  ordinary  circumstances,  and  in 


"The  Money  of  the  New  Conscience"    31 

extraordinary  circumstances  his  desire  is  due  only  to  the 
knowledge  that  he  has  no  real  security  even  in  the  case  of 
the  strongest  banks.  Under  the  proposed  plan  he  would 
know  that  his  security  was  security.  The  depositor's 
claim  on  the  bank  would  be  simply  that,  having  received 
debts  from  him  that  were  due  him  by  others,  it  should  hold 
itself  in  readiness  to  pay  his  debts  when  he  issued  his  checks 
therefor.  The  use  of  money — legal  tender  money — would 
then  be  restricted  to  the  payment  of  balances  at  the  clearing 
house  by  the  debtor  banks,  and  this  could  again  be  econo- 
mised by  the  permanent  use  of  clearing  house  certificates. 
The  movement  of  funds  between  the  clearing  house  cities 
could  be  economised  by  the  adoption  of  inter-clearing 
house  clearings.  The  telegraph  could  every  day — or  the 
telephone — gather  up  the  particulars  of  the  amounts 
required  for  remittance  between  the  principal  cities.  If 
New  York  clearing  house  banks  during  the  day  received 
applications  for  their  customers  for  $10,000,000  of  "drafts 
on  other  cities,  and  in  these  cities,  on  the  other  hand,  dur- 
ing the  same  day  drafts  were  asked  for  on  New  York  to  the 
amount  of  $10,000,000,  it  is  evident  that  not  a  dollar  in 
coin  or  paper  need  leave  the  city.  All  that  would  be  re- 
quired would  be  that  the  drafts  be  made  clearable  through 
some  inter-city  clearing  house,  which  might  be  in  New 
York,  and  only  balances  of  coin  or  paper  remitted  to  the 
cities  upon  which  more  was  drawn  than  they  were  to  receive. 
This  inter-city  clearing  house  might  in  its  turn  adopt  the 
clearing  house  certificate  method  of  paying  balances,  and 
the  payment  between  different  cities  be  made  by  the 
transfer  of  entries  on  the  central  books  of  credits  in  the 
Venetian  way. 

Liquidation  or  exchange  of  credit,  instead  of  redemp- 
tion, was,  he  believed,  the  next  great  step  in  banking 
and  currency.  If  ultimate  liquidation  was  assured 
and  if,  in  the  interim  before  payment,  the  banks  of 
the  government  were  put  under  a  penalty  such  as 


32  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

paying  interest,  there  would  no  longer  be  any  reason 
for  runs.  Another  great  advance  would  be  in  the 
universalisation  of  banking  knowledge  and  facilities. 
The  extension  of  credit  thereby  to  vastly  larger  fields 
would  economise  money,  and  spread  those  economic 
and  moral  virtues  which  attend  a  credit  system.  As 
none  of  the  existing  institutions  of  finance  were  yet 
the  creation  of  the  whole  people,  they  must,  like  all 
other  social  forms,  be  attacked  and  remodelled  until 
they  became  so.  In  regard  to  possible  forms  of  credit 
money  in  the  future  he  was  as  always  cautious  and 
evolutionary. 

I  have  no  theory  [he  said  in  an  interview1],  no  new  kind  of 
money  to  propose.  But  as  a  student  of  events  I  have  my 
ideas  of  the  tendency  of  monetary  systems  as  they  exist 
to-day,  and  am  endeavouring  to  suggest  remedies  for  evils 
whose  existence  or  imminence  all  close  observers  must 
admit. 

He  said  that  we  could  see  the  germs  of  the  future 
currency  in  the  devices  already  used  in  the  financial 
and  commercial  world  to  make  good  the  shortage  in 
our  metallic  money.  Such  was  the  coinage  of  commo- 
dities in  time  of  stringency.  In  his  writings  at  this 
time  he  advocated  the  extension  of  this  idea  and  de- 
scribed the  various  successful  forms  it  had  taken,  such 
as  Franklin's  plan  of  the  coinage  of  land  in  Pennsyl- 
vania 1720-1770;  the  system  by  which  the  people  of 
Guernsey  built  their  market  house  when  the  authorities 
issued  paper  notes  of  £l  each  in  return  for  labour  and 
material  needed,  which  were  made  receivable  for  rent 
in  the  stalls  of  the  market;  the  sub-treasury  scheme 
of  the  Western  farmers  whereby  it  was  proposed  that 

1  Chicago  Daily  Chronicle,  January  10,  1897. 


"  The  Money  of  the  New  Conscience"    33 

the  government  loan  the  farmers  a  certain  proportion 
of  the  value  of  their  produce  stored  as  security  in  govern- 
ment warehouses,  similar  to  the  plan  for  many  years 
practised  in  Russia.  But  he  especially  advocated 
the  extension  of  clearing  house  certificates  from  a  tem- 
porary to  a  permanent  use.  The  more  he  considered 
this  plan,  the  more  promising  it  became,  and  he  was 
gratified  to  find  later  that  the  banker,  Theodore  Oilman, x 
had  independently  reached  the  same  conclusion.  His 
estimate  of  the  plan  is  shown  in  the  following  letter, 
one  of  a  series,  to  Mr.  Oilman,  July  15,  1899: 

I  ...  find  ...  a  marked  copy  of  Sound  Money  and 
some  clippings  from  the  New  York  Tribune  on  your  clearing 
house  currency  plan.  .  .  . 

You  have,  I  think,  in  your  plan  made  the  most  important 
contribution  to  practical  finance  that  has  been  proposed  by 
any  financial  writer  of  modern  times,  and  I  hope  that  you 
intend  to  carry  on  a  vigorous  agitation  of  this  question.  I 
believe  that  its  importance  appears  to  me  even  greater  than 
it  does  to  yourself,  for  I  see  vast  social  results  to  follow  the 
broadening  of  the  basis  of  credit  that  you  propose.  For 
one  thing,  it  would  operate  powerfully  and  beneficently  to 
arrest  one  of  the  strongest  forces  now  at  work  in  the  con- 
centration of  wealth  in  this  country.  Also,  if  the  United 
States  can  adopt  this  credit-creating  invention  it  will 
result  in  the  transfer  of  the  financial  supremacy  of  the 
world  from  London  to  New  York.  The  present  financial 
system  of  Great  Britain  is  a  mere  bad  weather  breeder.  .  .  . 

If  you  have  issued  any  other  matter  than  that  which  I 
have  received  on  this  subject  I  shall  be  very  glad  to  get  it. 
I  think  I  wrote  to  you  in  my  previous  letter  that  I  had 
myself  proposed  the  same  kind  of  currency  in  several  public 
addresses  in  Boston  and  Chicago  before  the  appearance  of 

1  Author  of  A  Graded  Banking  System,  Federal  Clearing  Houses,  The 
Philosophy  of  the  History  of  Currency  in  the  United  States. 


34  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

your  book.  But  I  gladly  give  you,  with  your  practical 
command  of  the  question,  the  credit  of  having  been  the 
first  to  put  it  in  a  proper  shape  before  the  public. 

It  is  claimed  [he  said,  advocating  the  plan  in  1897*] 
that  the  system  I  propose  would  create  an  army  of  federal 
office-holders.  I  do  not  regard  this  as  an  evil.  It  is  time 
the  government  gave  something  to  the  people  instead  of 
lavishing  its  bounty  upon  the  monopolists.  We  have  had 
too  many  exhibitions  of  favouritism  toward  the  class  that 
seeks  to  control  all  commerce  and  to  dictate  to  labour. 
Give  the  poor  man  a  chance,  even  though  it  might  multiply 
the  number  of  office-holders.  One  thing  is  certain:  if  the 
present  monetary  system  based  only  on  gold  is  continued, 
it  will  result  in  a  rapid  succession  of  panics.  It  is  the  part 
of  a  wise  people  to  read  the  signs  of  the  times  and  adopt  in 
advance  such  means  as  will  give  them  comfort,  happiness, 
and  independence. 


In  regard  to  a  new  currency,  he  believed  (1897) 
it  should  be  issued  by  the  government  as  return  service 
for  service  rendered,  and  that  in  justice  to  existing 
interests  it  should  be  issued  only  on  new  wealth. 
Through  the  government  the  people  could  co-operate 
to  build  public  works  which  could  serve  as  a  basis  for 
the  issue  of  currency. 

If  the  United  States  had  never  parted  with  its  ownership 
of  the  coal  mines,  oil  wells,  etc.,  it  could  now  undertake 
public  works  to  the  extent  of  the  currency  it  could  put 
out,  which  would  be  absorbed  by  those  who  wanted  to  buy 
coal,  oil,  etc.,  or  to  lease  the  rights  to  operate  these  natural 
resources.  It  could  construct  railroads,  paying  for  labour 
and  material  by  Treasury  notes  which  would  be  receivable 
for  fares  and  freights  of  the  railroads  or  any  other  debt 
due  the  government.  .  .  . 

1  Chicago  Chronicle,  January  10,  1897. 


"The  Money  of  the  New  Conscience"    35 

A  government  gives  out  its  paper  money  for  the  materials 
with  which  to  run  the  government.  It  receives  it  back  in 
payment  for  the  services  of  the  government.  The  materials 
(including  the  work  of  the  officials  and  suppliers,  etc.)  are 
compounded  into  the  substance  of  the  government.  What 
the  government  receives  and  what  it  gives  back  are  but 
different  forms  of  the  same  thing.  The  government  paper 
money  is  therefore  redeemed  in  precisely  the  same  thing 
for  which  it  was  issued.  What  the  government  gets  from 
its  citizens  for  its  paper  is  what  it  gives  them  for  it  when 
they  pay  it  back  into  the  Treasury.  The  giro  [circle]  is 
complete  and  absolute  justice  has  been  done  to  all.  How 
narrow  and  pedagogic  seem  the  insistences  that  gold  shall 
be  the  only  means  by  which  services  shall  be  passed  from 
man  to  man  when  so  simple  and  honest  and  democratic  a 
means  as  this  is  at  hand,  and  one  which  has  been  used  so 
successfully. x 

While  much  of  the  hard  times  of  the  last  panics  was 
due,  he  said,  to  the  limitation  of  credits  by  the  limita- 
tion of  the  specie  system,  a  great  reason  lay  in  the 
inability  of  the  people  to  buy.  The  most  important 
aspect  of  the  money  problem  was  its  relation  to  the 
entire  social  programme.  The  real  evil  was  monopoly, 
and  money  was  one  of  the  fields  in  which  it  worked. 
This  field  was  in  general  the  exclusive  right  given  to 
the  Bank  of  England  and  the  United  States  national 
banks  to  issue  notes  against  government  bonds,  and  the 
right  of  holders  of  the  product  gold  to  have  it  coined 
into  money  to  the  denial  of  a  similar  right  to  all  pro- 
ducers of  things  that  have  a  market  acceptability. 
No  matter  how  ideal  we  might  succeed  in  making  our 
money  it  would,  if  a  monopolised  industry  continued, 
inevitably  flow  into  the  coffers  of  the  monopolists,  and 

1  The  Money  of  the  New  Conscience,  1896. 


36 

serve  still  further  to  advance  the  concentration  of 
wealth.  A  view  ahead,  and  not  a  very  long  one,  indicated 
that  we  must  break  down  the  monopolies.  Indeed, 
great  mischief  might  result  from  the  introduction  of 
an  ideal  money  unless  accompanied  by  a  social  pro- 
gramme of  industrial  equality  and  self-governing  ability. 

We  want  a  good  money  system,  but  quite  as  much  and 
precisely  at  the  same  time  we  want  other  things  that  will 
give  the  farmer  and  working  man  self-rule ;  to  give  dependent 
men  the  ability  to  cash  themselves  and  their  property  to 
those  who  have  the  power  to  fix  the  prices  of  what  they 
buy  and  what  they  sell,  means  only  that  it  quickens  the  sale 
of  their  liberty  and  independence. 

The  bankers,  he  said,  were  in  the  position  of  the 
other  owners  of  the  machinery  of  industry:  they  were 
the  masters  of  all  who  must  use  that  machinery.  Thus 
it  was  necessary  to  take  away  the  obstacles  of  privilege 
and  monopoly,  and  to  bring  it  about  that  all  have 
property  and,  having  it,  that  they  have  an  adequate 
system  of  money  to  make  exchange  quick,  easy  and 
just.  The  essential  thing  was  that  the  people  have  a 
well  understood  unit  of  calculation,  and  that  in  the 
issue  of  its  representatives  there  be  no  fraud  or  ignor- 
ance or  chance.  The  state  could  not  attempt  to  regulate 
values  against  either  appreciation  or  depreciation. 

As  a  money  potency  lies  in  every  marketable  com- 
modity— with  the  worker  it  is  life  itself — the  currency 
question  is  one  of  finding  means  to  bring  that  power 
into  action  for  all.  "How  can  we  give  to  every  pro- 
ducer of  commodities,  in  addition  to  the  right  of  selling 
his  products,  the  right  of  receiving  credit  for  them  if  he 
thinks  it  best  for  his  interest  not  to  sell?"  The  credit 
must  be  one  that  would  be  universally  acceptable  and 


"The  Money  of  the  New  Conscience"  37 

could  be  achieved  only  by  a  more  unified  society  than 
our  present  one.  In  its  essence,  therefore,  the  problem 
is  one  of  bringing  the  people  together  in  a  new  bond 
of  union.  Such  a  society  could  use  its  co-operative 
possibilities  to  find  means  of  giving  every  one  the 
opportunity  to  acquire  property,  and  upon  it  to  get 
money. 

...  A  scheme  of  labour,  a  better  political  economy,  a 
plan  of  co-operation,  individual,  national,  and  international, 
a  programme  of  a  national  mission  for  the  development  of 
our  material  resources,  and  our  spiritual  natures,  and  for  suc- 
cour of  the  needs  of  the  life  of  other  nations — this  is  nine 
tenths  of  the  problem  of  the  money  of  the  new  conscience. 
The  mechanics  of  the  money  question  have  long  been  settled 
by  the  experience  of  the  world.  We  need  for  our  guidance 
only  to  generalise  the  experience  and  devices  of  the  past 
five  hundred  years,  from  the  Bank  of  Amsterdam  to  the 
clearing  house  certificates  of  New  York,  and  the  Russian 
system  of  advances  &  la  sub-treasury  scheme  to  the  farmers 
on  the  security  of  their  wheat.  These  and  other  successful 
contrivances  to  effect  the  reciprocities  of  industry  have 
tested  every  feature  needed  for  a  currency  that  shall,  with- 
out privilege  to  any,  give  to  all  the  opportunity  of  producing 
for  their  fellows  and  the  means  for  exchanging  with  them 
what  they  have  produced.  It  is  not  necessary  to  invent 
anything  new.  All  that  is  wanted  is  that  the  common  mind 
shall  gather  into  one  view  the  lessons  of  the  efforts  of  the 
past,  and  put  them  into  practice.  New  details  will  always 
be  suggesting  themselves,  of  course,  as  is  still  the  case  with 
the  steam  engine,  but  the  main  work  of  inventing  the 
currency  of  the  people  has  been  done.  What  is  wanted 
now  is  that  the  people  shall  put  together  the  still  dis- 
connected results  of  these  demonstrations,  and  still  more 
that  they  shall  set  themselves  to  use  this  perfected  piece  of 
social  and  industrial  machinery  with  a  lofty  intelligence 


38  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

and  that  real  self-interest  which  has  found  out  that  each 
one  is  best  taken  care  of  when  each  works  for  the  other. 

His  notes  indicate  certain  monetary  changes  which 
he  considered  possible : 

Agreement  money  in  every  circle — local,  social,  indus- 
trial, political — where  the  people  know  each  other  so  well 
they  can  use  agreement  money. 

Use  of  representatives  for  gold — bullion  certificates — 
even  in  international  trade  settlements. 

Abolition  of  the  payment  of  deposits  in  full  in  cash  on 
demand. 

Interconvertibility  of  national  bonds  and  national 
currency. 

The  multiple  standard  for  deferred  payments. 

All  government  disbursements,  national,  state,  city,  etc., 
to  be  made  in  legal  tender  money  issued  to  the  amount  of 
the  taxation  and  to  be  redeemed  only  in  being  received  in 
payment  of  taxes. 

Discontinuance  of  all  coinage  of  gold  in  terms  of  the 
money  denominations  in  common  use — in  the  money  of 
account. 

Abolition  of  all  laws  fixing  the  proportion  of  reserves  to  be 
kept  by  bankers. 

Abolition  of  all  legal  tender  laws. 

Coinage  of  all  commodities  of  general  marketability  at 
average  valuations  where  associations  are  existent  that  can 
guarantee  the  government  as  the  national  banks  guarantee 
their  bank  note  circulation. 

As  a  better  money  is  a  question  of  mutual  con- 
fidence, he  believed  that  the  change  to  a  more  ideal- 
form  would  first  be  domestic,  then  international,  until 
under  the  larger  bond  of  the  "  internation, "  there  would 
be  created  an  international  money.  Therefore,  his  pro- 
gramme started  with  his  city : 


"The  Money  of  the  New  Conscience"    39 

If  Chicago  could  be  induced  to  adopt  a  financial  sys- 
tem which  should  make  bank  failures  for  ever  impossible, 
and  relieve  the  business  men  of  the  terrors  of  bank  con- 
traction and  the  oppression  of  the  money  lenders,  and  by 
municipal  ownership,  etc.,  give  productive  employment  to 
every  competent  man  and  woman,  Chicago  would  become 
the  financial,  industrial,  social,  and  moral  mistress  of  the 
world.  Is  this  impossible? 

He  sketched  in  his  notes  a  general  path : 

Establish  Chicago  first,  and  if  possible  the  whole  country, 
as  an  area  within  which  bank  failures  and  panics  of  the 
present  sort  are  impossible,  or  at  least  very  much  less 
frequent  and  severe  than  now. 

This  to  be  done  by: 

First, — the  demonetisation  of  gold  and  silver; 

Second, — the  abolition  of  cash  redemption  on  demand  by 
the  banks;  and, 

Third, — the  invention  of  a  system  for  giving  credit 
efficiency  to  all  property  (implying  money  as  well  as  inferior 
forms  of  credit) ; 

Fourth, — the  abolition  of  monopolies  so  that  all  citizens 
may  have  the  chance  to  become  the  owners  of  property. 

Next,  let  the  whole  people  unite  in  their  government  in 
a  general  policy  of  marketing  their  great  products  wanted 
abroad  on  the  principle  of  the  living  wage,  that  the  producer 
must  have  from  those  to  whom  he  brings  the  means  of  life 
and  of  industry  a  return  that  will  give  him  also  the  means  of 
a  full  life. 

Let  the  adoption  of  this  policy  be  consciously  and  deter- 
minately  not  for  the  purposes  of  national  aggrandisement 
and  selfishness  but  for  putting  into  the  hands  of  the  Ameri- 
can people  resources  which  will  be  a  war  chest  for  a  salvation 
army  campaign,  for  the  conversion  of  all  other  peoples  to 
accepting  a  similar  policy  for  themselves. 

We  want  crusades  again,  and  again  religious  wars  and 


40  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

conquests,  but  all  of  peace  and  all  for  proselyting  mankind 
to  the  religion  of  Man  the  Redeemer. 

Only  with  such  an  ideal  could  the  overshadowing  disci- 
pline and  the  resistless  power  of  a  great  government  social- 
ised be  endurable.  But  with  such  an  ideal  put  with  fair 
faithfulness  into  practice,  what  compensations  would  there 
not  be  for  the  subjection  of  the  individual  to  the  will  of 
the  commonalty  and  the  welfare  of  others?  To  share  the 
insurance  of  such  co-operation,  and  to  be  consciously  one  of 
the  creative  wills  in  so  glorious  a  programme,  would  lift  the 
citizen  to  a  safety  and  a  wealth  and  a  dignity  and  a  happi- 
ness now  unknown  even  in  dreams. 

The  manuscript  of  the  book  which  was  to  embody 
these  ideas  is  unfinished.  That  he  placed  some  virtue 
upon  it  is  shown  by  his  filing  instructions  for  its  publica- 
tion. He  intended  to  re- write  it.  Meanwhile  he 
continued  the  study.  He  corresponded  with  Henry 
W.  Wolff  of  England,  with  whose  advocacy  of  People's 
Banks,  or,  as  he  called  them,  "co-operative  credit 
societies,"  he  was  strongly  in  accord.  He  believed  that 
this  subject  was  destined  in  the  near  future  to  assume 
gigantic  importance  in  the  United  States.  Unfortu- 
nately, he  never  re- wrote  the  book.  Perhaps  his  reason 
is  shown  in  the  last  paragraph  of  his  letter  to  Professor 
Frank  Parsons  in  1898: 

.  .  .  You  ask  my  opinion  about  the  multiple  standard. 
I  have  never  been  able  to  see  any  flaw  in  Jevons's  argument  ; 
and  Walker,  I  think,  too,  supports  it,  that  in  this  way  the 
injustice  which  now  operates  in  long-deferred  payments 
could  be  avoided.  Of  course,  the  essential  fault  in  all  this 
matter  is  that  some  men  are  able  to  wait  indefinitely  for 
repayment,  while  the  vast  mass  can  accumulate  nothing. 
The  fortunate  few  can  wait  the  thirty  years  of  the  govern- 
ment bond;  the  many  cannot  wait  a  day. 


"The  Money  of  the  New  Conscience"    41 

If  there  were  a  commune  in  which  all  men  lived  up  to 
their  duty  and  produced  according  to  their  ability  to  pro- 
duce, and  thereby  won  the  right  to  consume  according  to 
their  ability  to  consume,  the  question  of  the  appreciation  of 
gold  would  be  of  no  importance.  There  would  be  no  debt 
grip  on  the  million  by  the  millionaire. 

I  do  not  suppose  that  even  the  multiple  standard,  in  any 
application  of  it  which  is  feasible,  could  prevent  some 
appreciation  accruing  to  the  benefit  of  the  man  who  can 
wait.  That  man's  saving  for  investment  of,  say,  $1000 
to-day  with  which  he  can  buy  the  right  to  claim  $1000  thirty 
years  from  to-day,  represents  now,  we  will  say,  one  ten- 
millionth  part  of  the  wealth  of  society.  When  the  day  of 
repayment  comes  thirty  years  from  now  society  will  have 
grown  so  indefinitely  richer  on  all  sides  that  his  claim  of  the 
ten-millionth  part  brings  him  back  many  times  more  than 
he  gave.  I  apprehend  that  even  with  the  multiple  standard 
making  his  claim  of  thirty  years  from  to-day  not  one  of 
gold  alone  but  one  of  iron,  wheat,  and  a  dozen  other  com- 
modities, the  wealth  of  society  in  other  directions  would  have 
increased  so  rapidly  that  he  would  still  be  able  to  claim  the 
repayment  of  a  very  largely  enhanced  share  of  the  social 
value  then  existing. 

Therefore,  I  look  more  to  the  abolition  of  monopoly  as  a 
remedy  than  to  currency  reform.  But,  understand,  I  am 
also  in  favour  of  currency  reform ;  because  in  the  currency 
is  also  one  of  the  heads  of  our  hydra.  .  .  . 

His  last  letter  on  the  subject,  written  to  James  W. 
Scott  of  Seattle  (1902),  reaffirms  his  earlier  position: 

I  have  received  your  letter  of  February  ist,  and  the 
circular  letter  with  regard  to  the  issue  of  a  currency  for  the 
construction  of  the  inter-oceanic  canal. 

I  regard  this  plan  as  thoroughly  sound  in  law,  morals,  and 
political  economy.  The  currency  would  be  given  for 
services  and  received  for  services.  The  transaction  would 


42  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

take  place  at  the  market  value  of  the  services  at  the  time  of 
the  transaction  on  each  side.  If  there  were  any  gain  it 
would  be  given,  as  it  ought  to  be,  to  the  whole  people,  if 
there  were  any  loss  it  would  be  shared,  as  it  ought  to  be,  by 
the  whole  people;  but  there  would  be  and  could  be  no  loss. 
The  currency  would  be  redeemed  in  that  in  which  it  was 
issued — services.  It  need  not  be  redeemed  in  gold  because 
it  was  not  issued  for  gold.  There  would  be  no  violation  of 
the  economic  laws  of  the  standard  of  value  because  there  is 
no  standard  of  value  for  commodities,  except  the  market 
value  of  each  commodity  at  the  time  of  each  transaction. 
This  would  be  a  currency  which  would  expand  and  con- 
tract with  the  volume  of  the  trade  concerned — the  only 
wholesome  law  of  currency.  It  would  be  a  true  circulation 
for  it  would  return  when  its  work  was  done  to  the  point  at 
which  it  had  begun.  Its  redemption  would  be  a  true 
redemption  for  it  would  be  redeemed  in  that  for  which  it 
was  sent  out.  It  would  be  taken  back  for  that  for  which  it 
was  given.  It  would  be  a  true  legal  tender  and,  if  the  moral 
sense  of  the  people  were  properly  developed,  it  would  need 
no  law  to  make  it  a  legal  tender.  Having  been  issued  by  all 
the  people  for  services  rendered  to  all  the  people,  it  is  the 
obligation  of  all  the  people  and  should  be  taken  by  all 
or  by  any.  For  any  to  refuse  to  use  it  would  be  real 
repudiation.  Such  a  currency  is  the  best  currency  and 
therefore  could  be  issued  and  maintained  only  by  the  best 
kind  of  people,  only  a  people  so  honest  that  no  suspicion  of 
over-issue,  of  jobbery,  or  of  repudiation  could  arise; only  a 
people  so  intelligent  that  they  are  certain  to  make  no  gross 
blunder  in  their  business  calculations;  only  a  people  who 
understand  the  true  standards  of  tender  and  value  and  the 
movement  of  prices,  could  issue  such  a  currency  without 
disaster.  I  do  not  see  why  the  Americans  are  not  such  a 
people.  I  believe  they  can  make  the  issue  of  such  a 
currency  a  success, — or  if  they  do  not,  such  a  people  will 
surely  some  day  arise  and  show  the  world  that  these  are  the 
real  principles  of  money. 


"The  Money  of  the  New  Conscience"    43 

A  currency  is  ideal  which  originates  in  services  which  are 
themselves  reproductive  of  services  which  will  redeem  the 
currency.  This  canal  currency  would  be  a  perfect  example 
of  economic  reciprocity,  which  the  working  of  all  currency 
should  be. 

I  have  expressed  myself  rather  fully  on  the  subject 
because  it  is  one  which  is  of  very  great  interest  to  me,  but 
I  suppose  that  there  is  no  hope  whatever  that  anything  so 
simple  and  democratic  and  so  conducive  to  the  public  good 
can  be  secured  from  Congress.  It  is  at  this  point  of  the 
art  and  science  of  currency  that  our  reformers  are  most 
weak,  and  it  is  at  this  point  that  even  our  most  advanced 
commonwealths,  brave  in  other  reform  enterprises,  still 
halt.  Switzerland  and  New  Zealand,  for  instance,  are 
leading  the  world  in  political  and  economic  reforms,  but  in 
neither  of  them  is  there  even  a  glimmer  of  any  solution  of 
this  problem  of  money,  and  unless  they  can  move  forward 
to  this  point  they  are  certain,  sooner  or  later,  to  see  their 
whole  structure  collapse. 


Thus,  here  again,  working  through  the  facts  of  finance, 
Lloyd  found  himself  on  the  broad  road  to  democracy ; 
again  pressing  forward  in  the  light  of  ethics  to  social 
love.  In  his  grasp  of  this  subject  he  revealed  himself 
again  as  a  scientist  and  philosopher  who  could  see 
through  the  technical  the  shimmer  of  the  ideal.  Search- 
ing for  the  spirit  of  the  science  of  money  he  pro- 
nounced it  "a  service  for  a  service,"  and  flashing 
his  vision  along  the  line  of  its  future  saw  that  its 
development  would  proceed  at  the  pace  of  the  spiritual 
growth  of  society.  The  people,  he  said,  must  grow 
in  grace  to  trust  one  another. 


It  can  be  predicted  with  scientific   certainty  that   the 
nobler  the  social  tie,  the  finer  will  be  the  means  of  exchange, 


44  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

until  in  the  highest  type  of  all — that  where  all  labour  their 
best  for  the  good  of  all — the  means  of  exchange  puts 
off  its  crude  economic  forms  and  has  only  a  spiritual 
body. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

VOICES   IN  THE  WILDERNESS 

THE  continuance  of  hard  times  and  the  increased 
aggressions  of  the  trusts  were  now,  in  the  middle 
of  the  decade  1890-1900,  causing  consternation  and 
indignation  among  the  people.  Yet  hope  still  lived 
in  the  hearts  of  idealists.  ' '  I  am  getting  more  reconciled 
to  life  every  day,"  Mr.  Lloyd  wrote  to  "Golden  Rule 
Jones"  in  1897.  And  Jones  answered:  "I  had  a  letter 
from  Mills  [B.  Fay  Mills]  the  other  day.  He  says  that 
everything  looks  hopeful  to  him  and  would  'if  it  was 
five  times  as  bad'!"  To  one  in  Mr.  Lloyd's  position 
great  opportunity  is  given  to  observe  the  trend  of  the 
times  and  his  letter  files  reveal  many  a  chapter  in  the 
human  history  of  the  people's  movement.  While 
his  correspondence  after  the  appearance  of  Wealth 
Against  Commonwealth  was  full  of  a  sense  of  impending 
danger,  it  soon  teemed  with  Utopian  plans  for  social 
regeneration. 

Progressives,  including  many  socialists,  were  turning 
away  from  the  political  field.  A  remarkable  impulse 
of  brotherhood  was  arising  as  a  revolt  from  the  hateful 
strife,  a  resolve  to  express  in  deeds  a  fellowship  which 
conditions  were  forcing  men  to  see  was  an  economic 
as  well  as  a  spiritual  necessity.  Voices  were  crying  in 
the  wilderness  arousing  the  nation  to  save  itself.  One 

45 


46  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

heard  on  all  sides  of  "the  new  day,"  "the  new  era," 
"the  dawn."  Brotherhoods  and  commonwealths  and 
leagues  for  social  service  were  entered  upon  with  a  religi- 
ous zeal,  so  that  Lloyd,  feeling  the  pulse  of  the  times, 
said  that  the  labour  movement  was  "getting  religion." 

The  brotherhood  of  man  [wrote  a  correspondent  in  an 
exalted  strain  repeated  by  others]  is  the  Kingdom  of  God 
for  which  we  pray,  and  that  brotherhood  has  been  coming 
irresistibly  through  all  the  ages.  And  we  may  say  with 
fuller  meaning  than  the  Son  of  Man — it  is  at  hand. 

Mr.  Lloyd  wrote  in  his  note-book : 

How  long,  how  long,  has  our  land  been  filled  with  the 
voice  not  of  one  but  of  the  multitudes  crying  in  the  wilder- 
ness— the  wilderness  of  want,  and  ...  of  that  which  is 
worse  than  want,  the  sickness  of  heart  of  the  people  who, 
loving  America  and  liberty  as  no  other  people  have  ever 
loved  their  country  and  her  liberties,  have  been  watching 
the  assassin  stealing  upon  her,  .  .  .  with  no  arm  ready  to 
save.  .  .  .  This  people  has  been  for  lo,  these  many  years 
confessing  its  sins  with  a  broken  heart,  but  at  last  there  is 
the  voice  of  the  crying  in  the  wilderness:  Prepare  ye  the 
way  of  the  Lord.  Make  His  path  straight. 

The  awakening  was  revealing  itself  in  church  and 
university,  where  monopoly,  realising,  Mr.  Lloyd  said, 
that  it  could  not  control  the  markets  of  the  people 
unless  it  also  controlled  their  minds,  was  making  its 
influence  felt.  With  protesting  ministers  or  professors 
made  the  victims  of  "dictating  wealth,"  such  as 
Professors  Edward  Bemis  of  Chicago  University,  and 
Benjamin  Andrews  of  Brown,  Mr.  Lloyd  was  in  sym- 
pathetic touch.  "We  had  better  talk  quick, "  he  wrote 
to  Professor  Ely,  "and  talk  at  one  mark  before  the 
chains  that  are  coming  are  clamped  to  our  tongues. 


Voices  in  the  Wilderness  47 

'Work  while  ye  have  the  light, '  and  talk  while  ye  have 
liberty. "  At  the  request  of  the  Senior  class,  he  delivered 
the  Commencement  address  at  Iowa  College  in  1895, 
one  result  of  which  was  his  friendship  with  President 
George  A.  Gates: 

We  have  indeed  had  Mr.  Lloyd  with  us  [wrote  President 
Gates  to  a  friend],  and  he  gave  us  what  I  think  I  can  soberly 
say  I  estimate  to  be  the  finest  Commencement  address  I 
ever  heard.  It  combined  every  charm  of  diction  and 
literary  finish,  with  a  winning  way  in  delivery  (lacking  only 
a  little  force  and  voice  for  the  large  audience),  with  the  most 
tremendous  up-to-dateness;  the  whole  shot  through  and 
through  with  the  noblest  ethical  and  Christian  ideals.  .  .  . 
He  is  indeed  a  rare  man.  I  had  some  talks  with  him  and 
had  him  to  the  house  at  dinner,  and  every  moment  was 
drawn  more  closely  to  him.  It  seems  to  me  he  is  one  of  the 
finest  men  I  have  ever  met.  I  am  going  to  know  him  better. 
Some  of  our  people  were  a  little  afraid  when  we  asked  him, 
but  the  College  people  were  quite  ready,  the  Seniors  having 
made  a  study  of  his  book. 

In  the  summer  of  1896,  Rev.  B.  Fay  Mills,  who,  in  his 
transition  from  orthodox  evangelical  work  to  a  new 
field,  frequently  unburdened  his  problems  to  Lloyd, 
called  a  confidential  conference  of  men  and  women  at 
his  home  at  Fort  Edward  on  the  Hudson.  It  brought 
such  true  inspiration  to  the  small  group,  including 
Lloyd,  that  a  second  conference  was  held  the  next 
summer  at  Lake  George.  Interesting  sketches  of  those 
present  were  entered  by  Eltweed  Pomeroy  in  his  diary, 
which  reads  in  part: 

CROSBYSIDE,  LAKE  GEORGE,  N.  Y.,  June  25,  1897. 
.  .  .  The  hotel  is  old-fashioned,  stately,  and  comfortable, 
with  wide,  lofty- pillared  piazza.  .  .  .  The  location  is  superb 


48  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

as  it  looks  up  the  Lake  to  the  islands  and  mountains.  .  .  . 
When  I  arrived  .  .  .  the  conference  was  in  session  .  .  .  ,  a 
group  of  twenty-five  or  thirty  ladies  and  gentlemen  sitting 
in  easy  chairs  on  a  corner  of  the  piazza  talking  in  a  most 
informal,  breezy,  pleasant  manner.  .  .  . 

There  is  and  has  been  the  most  beautiful  spirit  of  friendli- 
ness and  courtesy  in  their  talking.  .  .  .  The  personnel  of 
the  members  is  fine  and  high.  The  leader,  B.  Fay  Mills, 
.  .  .  has  been  one  of  the  most  successful  evangelists  of 
modern  times  and  is  admirably  adapted  to  it.  He  is  short, 
stout,  jolly,  tactful,  energetic,  with  the  large,  thin-lipped, 
almost  severe  mouth  of  the  born  talker.  His  dress  is 
clerical  but  there  is  no  air  of  special  elegance  or  distinction 
to  separate  him  from  the  average  person.  He  is  a  man  of 
abounding  vitality,  quick  wit  and  humour.  He  has  a  broad 
head  in  the  upper  part.  He  is  warm,  broadly  humane,  and 
receptive.  His  thought  is  often  lofty  and  profound. 

In  great  contrast  with  Mills  is  Henry  D.  Lloyd  who  is 
probably  the  most  potent  personality  here.  Yet  there  is  a 
warm  friendship  between  the  two  men.  The  lines  of  Mills' 
face  and  figure  are  horizontal,  broad;  the  lines  of  Lloyd's 
are  vertical,  lofty.  He  is  the  most  picturesque  man  here 
with  his  seamed  melancholy  face  and  worn  iron-grey  hair 
tumbling  back  from  a  high  rounded  forehead,  with  his 
quiet,  gentle  manners  and  the  soft  pressure  in  hand-shake 
of  his  delicate,  taper-fingered  hand  so  different  from  Mills' 
strong  grasp.  His  dress  and  demeanour  are  so  unobtrusive 
as  to  be  distinctive;  you  do  not  know  but  feel  that  he  is 
well-dressed.  His  language  is  picturesque,  poetic,  imagin- 
ative, illuminative.  His  thought  is  keen,  incisive,  and  so 
sympathetic  and  sensitive  to  all  wrongs  as  at  times  to  be 
almost  bitter  and  revolutionary  against  the  wrong-doers. 
He  is  pre-eminently  a  lovable  man.  He  is  as  delicate, 
as  fragile,  as  beautiful  as  a  Sevres  vase,  as  intense  and  as 
musical  as  a  violin  string  ready  for  the  master's  hand,  as 
sympathetic  as  a  woman.  His  sensitiveness  is  his  weak 
point,  as  his  feeling  for  others  would  at  times  make  him 


Voices  in  the  Wilderness  49 

almost  cruel  in  avenging  their  wrongs.     The  social  con- 
science is  over-developed  in  him. 

Associated  with  him  on  the  programme  committee  is 
Ernest  H.  Crosby,  who  has  not  yet  said  much.  He  is  an 
Apollo  in  physique  and  face  and  well-groomed  in  the  style 
of  the  modern  man  of  wealth.  He  has  travelled  every- 
where, seen  many  people  and  institutions,  is  highly  educated 
and  cultured.  He  is  a  sentimentalist  by  nature  and  is 
interested  in  these  social  problems  and  the  people  because 
the  "Zeitgeist"  of  the  times  is  democratic.  He  is  a  very 
lovable  fellow;  everyone  likes  him.  Every  one  knows  his 
intentions  are  good  but  few  know  exactly  what  those 
intentions  are  and  I  doubt  if  he  knows  himself.  He  sees 
good  in  almost  every  one  and  every  thing.  He  is  a  mystic. 
He  wraps  things  in  a  warm,  tender,  beautiful,  but  vague 
mist.  .  .  . 

Their  talks  were  profound  and  serious,  treating  from 
the  ethical  standpoint  present-day  problems,  the  new 
colonies,  such  as  "Ruskin, "  direct  legislation,  the  city 
and  the  education  of  the  citizen,  socialism,  and  the  new 
trend  in  religion.  Recalling  the  experience  George  H. 
Strobell  wrote  (1907) : 

My  mind  goes  back  to  an  epoch-making  time  of  my  life — 
a  week  of  conference  at  Lake  George  ten  years  ago  with  a 
few  of  the  noblest  minds  of  our  time  and  I  hear  Comrade 
Lloyd  say :  "When  my  mind  loses  its  tone  amid  the  insin- 
cerity and  foolishness  of  society  and  my  soul  abhors  the 
falsehood  and  hypocrisy  of  the  times,  I  go  to  an  ordinary 
socialist  meeting  and  by  the  straightforwardness  and  truth 
shown  there  heart  and  mind  and  soul  are  revived  and 
strengthened." 

The  Sunday  evening  conference  on  the  new  con- 
science is  described  in  Mr.  Pomeroy's  diary : 


5°  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

It  was  opened  by  Mrs.  Mills,  with  a  lucid,  profound 
address  full  of  feminine  grace  and  searching  intuitions,  and 
followed  by  Mr.  Lloyd,  whose  talk  covered  a  wide  scope  both 
historically  and  in  co-ordinating  present  facts.  The  facts 
were  stated  with  so  much  illuminative  foresight  that  we  all 
felt  what  Mr.  Mills  expressed,  that  a  discussion  following 
such  addresses  would  only  impair  their  value  and  lower  the 
tone  of  the  evening. 

Professor  J.  W.  Jenks  of  Cornell  University  wrote: 

Mr.  Lloyd's  opening  talk  at  the  meeting  which  he  led  im- 
pressed me  at  the  time  as  the  most  effective  bit  of  parlour 
oratory  which  it  had  ever  been  my  good  fortune  to  listen  to. 
Mr.  Lloyd  sat  very  quietly  and  spoke  in  a  low,  conversa- 
tional, even  tone,  but  I  think  that  I  had  never  had  my 
feelings  more  aroused  by  any  orator  than  by  what  he  said 
at  that  time.  Moreover,  this  feeling  came  in  spite  of  a 
struggle  against  it,  for  I  did  not  agree  intellectually  with  a 
good  many  of  the  opinions  which  Mr.  Lloyd  was  expressing. 
I  learned  afterward  on  inquiring  that  others  of  the  small 
group  at  the  meeting  had  been  affected  in  the  same  way, 
although  they  likewise  had  had  opinions  quite  radically 
different  from  those  expressed  by  Mr.  Lloyd.  After  the 
meeting  was  over,  I  tried  my  best  to  see  if  I  could  analyse 
the  methods  employed  by  Mr.  Lloyd,  because  although  I 
had  not  been  convinced  by  what  he  had  said,  I  had  been 
profoundly  moved,  and  it  seemed  to  me  that  his  talk  had 
been  a  triumph  of  oratorical  method.  It  was  at  this  meet- 
ing at  Lake  George  that  I  learned  to  know  Mr.  Lloyd  best, 
and  to  value  him  most  highly  for  his  qualities  of  head  and 
heart. 

At  the  closing  session  each  gave  his  philosophy  of  life, 
his  impelling  aim.  A  member  made  a  note  of  what 
Mr.  Lloyd  said: 

.  .  .  "To  see  how  things  are  is  the  thing  I  have  always 


Voices  in  the  Wilderness  51 

cared  for.  Not  conscious  of  loving  fellow-men.  Do  not 
care  for  accumulating  things  or  fame."  Wants  a  know- 
ledge of  how  things  are.  If  he  has  any  passion,  it  is  that. 
"  I  stand  face  to  face  with  nature,  with  all  the  poems  of 
nature  and  of  God,  and  say  where  is  this  all- wise,  all-good 
God  and  I  say  there  is  no  such  God.  I  see  in  man  the  idea 
of  God.  God  is  the  hero  of  religious  romance.  God  is  the 
highest  point  in  nature,  the  sum  of  the  good.  God  in  his 
highest  manifestations  is  man.  No  higher  power  in  nature 
than  man.  Arrogate  to  man  the  title  of  Creator.  No 
higher  power  to  start  creation  either  in  degree  or  quality 
than  in  the  talk  of  any  one  here.  Christ  is  the  mirror  of 
man.  God,  Christ,  the  law,  are  things  to  be.  The  revela- 
tions of  this  creative  power  may  come  from  any  man, 
woman,  or  child.  Hence  there  must  be  perfect  freedom. 
This  is  the  religious  foundation  for  democracy,  which  is 
about  to  create  another  heaven  of  peace,  the  indispensable 
requisite  of  the  human  race.  The  work  which  lies  before 
man  is  to  create  the  heaven  of  industrial  peace." 

A  stranger  thus  records  an  impression  of  these  days l : 

A  few  years  ago  one  summer's  day,  I  sat  alone  on  a  rock 
overhanging  Lake  George.  A  gentleman  came  down  to 
the  water's  edge  and  hired  a  boat,  and  seeing  me  alone, 
invited  me  to  join  him.  We  crossed  the  lake  and  back 
again — and  lingered  long  under  the  overhanging  trees  and 
there  talked  and  mused.  He  drew  me  out  with  questions, 
and  his  talk  was  rich  in  epigram.  He  plied  the  oars  and 
plied  me  with  more  questions  and  in  a  quiet  nook  he 
lay  down  on  his  back  and  looking  up  into  the  cool  green 
branches  indulged  in  a  long  monologue.  He  touched  upon 
every  conceivable  social  question  on  the  face  of  the  earth. 
When  we  parted,  he  said:  "I  hope  you  will  join  me  to- 
morrow." We  met  every  day  for  a  week  and  spent  hours 

1  Rev.  Charles  S.  Daniel,  Neighbourhood  House,  Philadelphia, 
January  2,  1904. 


52  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

on  that  boat.  The  keeper  told  me  one  day  he  was  the 
richest  man  at  the  hotel.  I  was  the  poorest  by  the  lake, 
and  did  not  stop  at  that  hotel.  But  we  met  every  day  and 
talked  and  talked.  My  oarsman  was  Henry  Demarest 
Lloyd. 

At  these  informal  communions  many  grew  to  know 
and  love  him.  He  was  as  quickly  responsive  to  the 
light  and  witty  side  of  fellowship  as  to  its  lofty  stimulus. 
The  modesty  and  beauty  of  his  confidences,  his  words  of 
hope,  coming  with  his  portrayal  of  the  sacrifices  de- 
manded in  the  new  crusade,  made  a  profound  religious 
impression. 

No  one  and  no  message  [wrote  William  Thurston  Brown 
to  him]  ever  made  me  so  glad  to  live  as  yourself  and  your 
message.  .  .  .  Your  splendid  faith — faith  which  I  have 
not  found  in  "Israel" — was  a  revelation  to  me.  .  .  .  No 
voice  from  a  pulpit  ever  strengthened  my  faith  in  man  as  did 
your  words  and  yourself,  and  I  am  glad  to  acknowledge  the 
debt. 

There  were  also  the  sessions  of  the  Brotherhood  of 
the  Kingdom  at  Marlboro  on  the  Hudson,  the  summer 
schools  at  Green  Acre,  Maine,  at  Deerfield,  Massachu- 
setts, at  Professor  Davidson's  and  at  Miss  Mann's 
in  the  Adirondacks,  where  Lloyd  was  often  to  be  found, 
testing,  gleaning,  illuminating  that  new  moral  zeal 
which  he  felt  was  to  be  the  basis  of  the  coming  co- 
operative social  order. 

The  aspiration  toward  industrial  peace  expressed 
itself  also  in  a  recurrence  of  the  colonising  spirit  which 
in  the  first  half  of  the  century  had  spread  into  this 
country  from  the  Fourierism  and  Owenism  of  Europe. 
Weary  of  mere  denunciation,  disheartened  by  politi- 


Voices  in  the  Wilderness  53 

cal  defeat,  Despairing  of  strikes,  appalled  at  the  idea 
of  attacking  industrial  tyranny  in  its  great  national 
form,  the  people  turned  to  the  land,  and  to  their  own 
powers  of  independent  production.  The  progressive 
imagination  pictured  Edens  of  fertile  fields  and  cours- 
ing streams,  orchards  and  vineyards,  forests  of  pine 
and  oak,  out  of  which  homes  and  independence  might 
be  created.  Letters  came  to  Lloyd  from  Christian 
and  agnostic,  from  working  men  and  professors,  many 
written  in  exalted  strain  and  all  bearing  this  burden 
of  longing  to  do  the  deed  of  brotherhood,  to  escape 
from  the  slavery  of  office  or  factory  to  free  and  joyful 
work,  asking  his  advice  as  to  site  and  organisation,  as 
to  basic  principles  on  which  to  build  the  new  body  and 
the  new  spirit.  Even  when  their  proposals  seemed 
impracticable,  he  was  slow  to  say  a  discouraging  word. 
"Letters  from  my  cranks,"  he  called  them  in  a  spirit 
of  fellowship. 

He  had  long  been  studying  colonies,  reading  widely  on 
the  subject,  and  had  watched  with  interest  one  of  the 
earlier  American  experiments,  that  at  Topolobampo, 
Mexico,  with  whose  founder,  Albert  Kimsey  Owen,  he 
became  acquainted  at  the  time  of  its  installation  in 
1886.  He  had  visited  the  Shakers  at  Mt.  Lebanon, 
New  York,  and  was  deeply  impressed  by  the  beauty 
of  their  communal  life. x 

"The  North  Family"  thus  describes  his  first  visit: 

The  acquaintance  of  the  North  Family  of  Shakers  of 
Mount  Lebanon,  New  York,  with  Henry  D.  Lloyd  began 
in  1894.  A  visit  by  Mrs.  Helen  Campbell,  late  in  the  fall 
of  1893,  was  the  initial  step  to  this  introduction.  Previous 
to  his  visit,  he  sent  the  family  his  address,  "The  New 

1  The  Manifesto,  September,  1894. 


54  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

Conscience, "  the  public  reading  of  which  afforded  an  insight 
into  his  thought  and  purpose,  which  gave  him  a  place  in 
their  appreciation  and  affection  far  beyond  that  held  by  any 
other  outside  worker.  The  early  days  of  September,  1894, 
were  golden  and  beautiful,  when  the  long  looked  for  visit 
occurred.  An  aged  brother,  Elder  Charles  Greaves,  who 
for  many  years  had  been  an  enthusiastic  champion  of  the 
single  tax  and  kindred  reforms,  went  to  the  little  wayside 
station  at  New  Lebanon,  to  meet  the  distinguished  stranger. 
The  train  had  passed  on,  and  among  the  many  coming  and 
going  his  eye  sought  out  one  quietly  sitting  and  reading  a 
newspaper,  and  by  his  look  and  bearing  recognised  him  at 
once  as  "a  brother  of  his  heart  and  a  prince  among  demo- 
crats. "  The  most  cordial  relations  were  at  once  established. 
It  is  well  known  that  Shakers,  like  the  early  Quakers, 
abjure  all  titles  and  address  every  one  by  the  given  name. 
"We  are  a  plain  people  in  manner  and  speech,  may  we  call 
you  Henry?"  met  the  hearty  response,  "Oh,  do,  I  would  be 
so  glad  to  hear  you.  It  takes  me  back  to  the  early  days  in 
my  home. "... 

The  keen  observation,  appreciation  of  small  details,  and 
recognition  of  underlying  forces  and  principles  delighted 
his  entertainers.  As  he  passed  about  the  settlement,  look- 
ing at  the  buildings,  he  remarked  how  they  were  all  well 
built,  and  kept  well  apace  with  modern  improvements.  He 
looked  at  all  from  the  standpoint  of  co-operation  and 
brotherhood,  recognising  that  love,  not  competition,  was 
the  strongest  incentive  to  bring  about  the  best  results  in 
life.  After  conversing  with  many  members  of  the  Com- 
munity, he  expressed  surprise  at  the  strong  individuality 
apparent  and  was  glad  of  the  evidence  that  communism 
did  not,  as  many  suppose,  kill  individuality.  His  keen 
journalistic  alertness  and  practical  judgment  viewed  with 
the  same  interest  the  details  of  culinary  department,  sewing 
shops,  and  barns, — all  meant  life.  He  remembered  the 
name  and  countenance  of  each  person  he  met  and  the 
special  lines  on  which  they  had  conversed,  and  was  able  to 


Voices  in  the  Wilderness  55 

call  each  by  name  and  renew  conversation,  as  if  with  an  old 
friend. 

Taken  for  a  drive  he  remarked  the  contrast  between  the 
way  farms  and  residences  were  kept  up  under  private  owner- 
ship and  in  our  communistic  homes.  Poor  people,  he  said, 
had  taxes  as  an  excuse  for  seeming  negligence.  He  felt  it 
bitter  that  the  system  of  taxation  put  a  premium  on  indo- 
lence and  levied  a  fine  upon  industry  and  thrift ;  hard,  that 
the  Shakers,  who  were  striving  for  the  expression  of  the 
highest  ideals  in  spiritual  and  industrial  life,  should  be  forced 
by  the  enactments  of  government  perpetually  to  beat 
against  wind  and  tide;  and  unjust,  that  those  who  were 
doing  so  much  for  education  should  be  subject  to  tax. 

His  visit  included  the  Sabbath,  thus  affording  opportunity 
for  meeting  the  whole  Society  at  public  worship,  for  an 
evening  address,  and  for  an  address  also  before  the  Social 
Improvement  Society,  an  association  among  the  younger 
members  of  the  North  Family.  Meeting  Catherine  Allen, 
one  of  this  band,  he  was  delighted  to  learn  that  her  parents 
were  Rev.  John  Allen  and  Ellen  Lazarus  of  Brook  Farm, 
and  connected  with  the  North  American  Phalanx,  and 
other  communistic  associations.  "Then  that  accounts  for 
your  being  here.  It  is  a  case  of  the  parents  sowing  and 
fruition  coming  to  the  offspring. "  He  showed  the  utmost 
familiarity  with  the  history  of  communistic  enterprise  in 
this  and  other  lands.  He  saw  the  fundamental,  intrinsic 
idea  in  our  teachings  to  be  the  finding  of  God  in  humanity, 
and  remarked:  "I  cannot  fully  define  my  God,  for  my 
God  is  n't  finished  yet,  but  is  growing,  as  humanity  grows. " 
One  point  to  which  he  referred  over  and  over  again  was  the 
enjoyment  he  experienced  in  the  Shaker  songs,  especially 
those  originating  with  the  young  people.  Their  composi- 
tions interested  him.  He  had  never  heard,  in  club  or  other 
organisations,  so  many  subjects  vital  to  humanity  so  intel- 
ligently handled,  as  by  that  band  of  young  Shakers.  He 
found  his  lecture,  "The  New  Conscience,"  used  as  a  text- 
book, for  reference,  for  quotation.  The  fact  that  so  much 


56  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

development  along  these  lines  was  attained,  with  all  the 
toil  of  house  and  farm,  assured  him  that  we  need  never  feel 
that  a  proper  amount  of  manual  labour  could  be  other  than  a 
help  to  the  highest  development,  and  he  insisted  that  "the 
real  workers  of  the  world  are  the  real  thinkers  of  the  world. " 

He  described  the  impression  made  upon  him  by  his 
coming  to  the  Shaker  Community,  as  that  of  sailing  a 
stormy,  tempestuous,  wave-tossed  sea,  and  suddenly,  by 
some  little  movement,  passing  into  a  quiet  stream,  winding 
through  peaceful  meadows,  touched  by  the  sunlight  and 
reflecting  the  serenity  of  deep  blue  skies.  In  his  tribute  to 
the  Society,  he  put  before  us  its  ideal,  and  in  his  recognition 
of  past  accomplishments  and  the  possibilities  of  that  ideal 
was  revealed  his  capacity  for  appreciation  of  all  that  Shakers 
had  become  and  had  accomplished ;  never  any  one  rendered 
a  more  delicate  yet  forcible  rebuke  and  warning.  He 
reminded  us  that  this  inheritance  was  not  ours,  it  belonged 
to  humanity,  an  inheritance  of  the  ages.  He  begged  us  to 
take  measures  to  let  its  life  and  light  go  forth  to  the  world, 
and  uttered  a  clarion  call  to  make  secure  our  inheritance 
for  the  good  of  the  race. 

He  spoke  of  his  enjoyment  of  the  freedom  of  the  march  in 
religious  worship,  the  principle  that  body  and  spirit  help 
each  other,  and  hoped  that  we  would  always  feel  the  inspira- 
tion too  dominant  to  be  willing  to  drop  it.  It  had  been  a 
season  of  deep  soul-refreshing  to  him.  His  prophetic  ut- 
terances took  us  forward  to  the  time  of  regenerate  human- 
ity, when  we  could  understand  God  in  a  larger  sense  than 
was  possible  under  present  conditions.  His  matchless 
eloquence  thrilled  all  hearts  and  we  recognised  the  justice 
of  the  name  by  which  we  had  heard  him  called,  "the 
Wendell  Phillips  of  the  West." 

In  the  years  that  intervened  between  that  visit  and  his 
triumphant  passing  to  the  continuation  of  his  work  upon 
the  other  side,  the  feeling  of  reverence,  love,  and  sympa- 
thetic association  with  this  great,  modest  man  grew  and 
strengthened.  We  felt  that  we  had  a  true,  strong  friend  in 


Voices  in  the  Wilderness  57 

the  outer  courts,  a  brother  who  understood  and  loved  us, 
while  all  the  union  of  spirit,  the  sympathy  that  gives 
strength,  the  desire  that  is  prayer,  went  out  from  our 
hearts,  perpetually,  to  him.  .  .  . 

Their  shelter,  free  from  hate  and  strife,  remained  al- 
ways to  him  "my  beloved  Mt.  Lebanon. "  "I  send  my 
love  to  all  of  you,"  he  wrote.  "I  would  like  to  mention 
all  by  name  and  I  believe  I  remember  every  one.  .  .  . 
You  are  all  dear  to  me. "  As  to  their  share  in  the  work 
of  regeneration  he  testified  in  a  letter  to  Elderess  Anna 
White  in  1897: 

MY  DEAR  SISTER  ANNA: 

It  seems  to  me  as  if  hardly  a  day  passes  that  my  mind 
does  not  turn  back  to  you  and  the  dear  people  at  New 
Lebanon,  whom  I  shall  always  hold  in  such  loving  remem- 
brance. I  was  very  glad  to  receive,  quite  long  ago,  the 
copy  you  sent  me  of  the  Springfield  Republican  with  a  very 
able  article  by  Sister  Catherine.  I  admire  the  skill  with 
which  she  puts  her  case,  and  I  am  sure  the  article  must  do  a 
great  deal  of  good.  I  keep  before  me  on  my  desk  the  poems 
of  Sister  Martha  and  Sister  Cecilia  and  the  songs  of  Sister 
Lucy  are  always  in  sight.  I  wish  I  could  run  down  this 
minute  and  be  with  you  all  again  during  this  lovely 
spring-time. 

I  have  recently  been  in  correspondence  with  a  number  of 
people  who  seem  anxious  to  start  a  co-operative  movement 
in  America  in  something  the  same  way  the  English  have 
done.  I  have  recommended  as  the  most  practical  step  to  be 
taken  first,  a  private  conference  of  the  few  persons  in  this 
country  who  have  actually  done  something  real  to  show 
their  interest  in  the  work  of  co-operation.  They  are  the 
only  ones,  it  seems  to  me,  who  are  likely  to  have  anything 
to  suggest  that  would  be  valuable.  I  have  urged  that  the 
North  Family  be  requested  to  send  a  representative  to  this 


58  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

conference  if  it  be  held,  and  I  hope  that  if  the  invitation  is 
sent  you  will  find  it  proper  and  convenient  to  accept  it. 
The  life  which  your  community  has  led  of  actual,  practical, 
and  successful  co-operation  for  a  hundred  years  on  the 
basis  not  of  material  but  of  spiritual  communion,  is  to  my 
mind  the  most  admirable  and  the  most  successful  illus- 
tration which  the  spirit  of  co-operation  has  yet  received. 
If  you  are  moved  to  make  any  suggestions  to  me  with  regard 
to  the  general  idea,  or  any  of  the  details,  of  the  movement 
for  giving  co-operation  a  start  in  this  country,  you  may  be 
sure  that  I  should  receive  them  very  gratefully. 

He  was  also  interested  in  the  Colorado  Co-operative 
Company.  The  letters  of  Mrs.  Annie  L.  Diggs  and 
other  leaders  to  him  had  a  paradisiacal  fervour. 

We  have  found  in  Colorado  a  country  fresh  from  the 
hand  of  God,  a  mesa  in  Montrose  County,  into  which  we 
can,  by  helping  one  another,  by  co-operating,  conduct  the 
water  of  life  and  make  the  desert  as  "the  garden  of  the 
Lord." 

He  wrote  to  Mrs.  Diggs  in  1895: 

I  was  glad  to  hear  from  you,  and  am  greatly  interested  in 
your  co-operative  scheme.  I  believe  the  movement  of  deep- 
est significance  in  our  time  is  this  spontaneous  turning  to 
co-operation  in  so  many  directions.  Co-operations,  trade- 
unions,  farmers'  granges,  and  the  churches  must  supply 
us  with  the  material  for  the  new  social  union  to  which  we 
are  moving.  I  have  not  had  time  to  study  out  your  plan, 
but  I  will  do  so,  and  if  it  continues  to  strike  me  as  favourably 
as  it  does  now,  I  will  become  a  subscribing  member,  and  I 
wish  on  many  accounts  I  could  go  there  to  live!  Such  a 
movement  offers  the  only  equivalent,  to  us,  for  the  exodus 
of  the  Puritans  and  Pilgrims  from  England.  Without  that 
the  American  republic  would  have  been  impossible.  With- 


Voices  in  the  Wilderness  59 

out  such  kindergartens  as  these  colonies,  we  shall  have  no 
population  able  to  operate  the  co-operative  common- 
wealth. Are  you  clear  in  your  mind  that  you  should 
permit  private  ownership  of  land? 

Would  you  welcome  some  Russian  Jews  I  know  of  who 
are  looking  for  a  home?  .  .  .  Why  would  it  not  be  a  good 
thing  to  invite  Wayland  to  take  his  newspaper  to  your 
Happy  Valley?  .  .  . 

This  colony  lived  several  years  but  the  difficulties 
that  beset  it  proved  too  great,  and  in  1901  its  stock- 
holders discarded  its  principal  co-operative  features, 
discontinued  its  paper,  The  Altrurian,  to  which  Lloyd 
had  been  an  occasional  contributor,  and  organised  a 
capitalistic  business  which  still  exists. 

So  strong  was  the  colonising  enthusiasm  that  action 
on  a  national  scale  was  now  started  to  unite  the  scat- 
tered forces  of  socialists,  nationalists,  co-operators,  and 
reform  groups.  The  plan  was  (i)  to  educate  the  people 
in  the  principles  of  socialism;  (2)  to  unite  all  socialists 
in  one  fraternal  organisation;  (3)  to  establish  co-opera- 
tive colonies  and  industries  and  so  far  as  possible  to  con- 
centrate these  colonies  and  industries  in  one  State  until 
said  State  was  socialised.  The  chief  originator  of  the 
idea,  Norman  Wallace  Lermond,  set  forth  the  plan  in  the 
socialist  newspaper  The  Coming  Nation,  and  proposed 
it  to  leading  men.  "  It  behooves  every  lover  of  justice 
and  humanity, "  he  wrote  to  Lloyd,  "who  has  caught  a 
glimpse  of  the  light  from  the  rising  sun  of  a  diviner 
civilisation  to  unite. "  Mr.  Lloyd's  answers  are  unfor- 
tunately lost,  but  his  attitude  was  not  favourable. 
He  said  that  should  the  new  organisation  succeed  in 
capturing  a  State,  the  money  power  would  force  it  into 
rebellion  and  then  crush  it  with  all  the  military  power 
at  its  command,  that  it  was  only  "by  shrewd  and 


60  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

attractive  measures"  and  "events"  that  the  regenera- 
tive forces  could  be  united.  When  a  call  was  considered, 
urging  all  socialists  to  send  delegates  to  a  national 
conference  to  be  held  during  the  People's  party  con- 
vention at  St.  Louis  in  July,  1896,  he  hung  fire.  He 
was  slow  to  risk  the  hopes  and  money  of  the  people, 
even  objecting  to  a  supplementary  circular  asking  for 
a  dime  from  each  member  for  an  educational  fund.  He, 
however,  yielded  to  the  ardent  hope  of  the  promoters 
and  added  his  signature.  It  was  third  on  the  list, 
following  that  of  Debs,  who,  while  in  prison,  had  been 
dreaming  dreams  of  escape  for  the  people.  The  formal 
organisation,  "The  Brotherhood  of  the  Co-operative 
Commonwealth,"  took  place  in  the  fall  of  1896. 
Although  Lloyd  had  declared  that  he  would  not  accept 
office,  the  election  by  referendum  vote  resulted  in  the 
nearly  unanimous  choice  of  him  for  President.  Mr. 
Lermond's  letter  announcing  this  bore  the  following 
letterhead  : 

TO  USHER  IN 

A  union  of  all  The  Brotheihood  of  Mutualism  or  the 

Socialists  in  the  the  Co-operative  Com-  Kingdom  of  Heaven 
world.  monwealth.  Here  and  Now. 

"This  move  is  destined  to  lead  us  out  of  the  wilder- 
ness, "  it  said,  "if  our  strongest  men  will  lead  the  way. " 

Mr.  Lloyd,  however,  adhered  to  his  resolution  and 
did  not  accept  the  office.  He  said  that  he  was  unwilling 
to  be  "a  figurehead,"  and  would  only  undertake  it  on 
the  expectation  of  devoting  to  it  a  great  deal  of  effort, 
that  he  believed  it  wise  for  him  to  use  his  powers  in 
bringing  before  the  people  the  best  of  all  the  new 
orders  in  emancipation.  His  refusal  was  deeply  re- 
gretted, since  upon  him  alone  all  the  elements  seemed 


Voices  in  the  Wilderness  61 

able  to  agree.  Under  Rev.  Myron  W.  Reed  as  Presi- 
dent, with  Debs  as  national  organiser,  the  Brotherhood 
soon  grew  into  the  most  extensive  machine  yet  created 
by  the  advance  guards  of  the  American  labour  move- 
ment, with  eight  departments  for  the  teaching  of 
socialism,  for  the  settlement  of  colonies,  the  establish- 
ment of  industries  by  building  and  operating  factories 
and  mills,  and  for  political  action.  The  American 
Railway  Union  at  its  final  meeting,  June  15,  1897, 
re-organised  into  the  Social  Democracy  of  America, 
and  co-operated  with  the  Brotherhood. 

The  State  selected  was  Washington,  the  headquarters 
Equality  Colony,  described  as  "an  embryo  paradise." 
Lloyd  compared  the  move  to  the  settlement  of  Kansas 
by  the  Free  Soilers,  with  the  difference  that  in  Kansas 
it  had  been  done  to  prevent  the  spread  of  chattel 
slavery,  while  in  Washington  it  was  to  free  the  wage- 
slave  already  there.  But  this  dream,  like  the  others, 
failed.  Only  three  thousand  members  joined;  in  1898 
its  one  colony  became  autonomous  and  a  split  occurred 
in  its  ally,  the  Social  Democracy,  whereby  one  half, 
declaring  for  political  action  alone,  helped  to  form  the 
Social  Democratic  party,  later  the  Socialist  party, 
leaving  only  a  small  section  to  follow  the  lines  of  co- 
operating and  colonising  endeavour.  "Another  so- 
cialist failure,"  said  a  newspaper  here  and  there  in 
satisfaction.  "Every  failure  has  been  a  success," 
wrote  Lloyd  in  his  note-book. 

Among  the  many  reform  sheets  at  this  time  was 
The  Coming  Nation,  first  published  in  1893  at  Greens- 
burg,  Indiana,  by  J.  A.  Wayland.  When  its  circulation 
reached  a  profitable  figure,  Wayland,  declaring  that  he 
did  not  desire  to  heap  up  profits  while  millions  of  his 
fellows  lived  in  poverty,  acquired  several  thousand 


62  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

acres  at  Cave  Mills  in  Tennessee,  where  a  co-operative 
colony,  called  Ruskin,  was  started.  Here  in  a  beautiful 
valley  men  again  began  to  build,  to  till,  and  to  educate. 
Hopes  ran  high  and  prosperity  smiled  upon  them,  albeit 
from  rude  and  primitive  conditions.  One  of  their  plans, 
which  had  been  long  and  earnestly  contemplated,  was 
to  establish  a  college.  When  the  time  came  for  laying 
the  corner-stone,  Lloyd  was  chosen  by  the  people  for  the 
address.  It  was  a  unique  procession  of  colonists,  free- 
masons, neighbours,  about  three  hundred  in  all,  which  on 
the  afternoon  of  Sunday,  June  19,  1897,  marched  to  the 
site  selected  for  the  first  socialist  college  in  history, — 
"  Ruskin  College  of  the  New  Economy,  built  by  the  peo- 
ple to  institute  freedom. "  In  the  corner-stone,  which 
was  of  Ruskin  marble  polished  and  lettered  by  Ruskin 
workers,  were  deposited  the  charter  and  by-laws  of 
the  association,  an  historical  sketch  of  Ruskin,  roster  of 
stockholders,  Ruskin  labour  checks,  anniversary  num- 
ber (204)  of  The  Coming  Nation,  roster  of  officers  and 
members  of  Yellow  Creek  Lodge,  No.  319,  A.  F.  and 
A.  M.,  silver  coins  of  1897,  Lloyd's  personal  card, 
and  the  programme  of  the  day.  Here,  on  a  beautiful 
eminence,  they  laid  a  corner-stone  which  all  believed 
was  a  small  beginning  of  a  great  end,  and  to  the  group 
of  ardent  pioneers  Lloyd  interpreted  in  noblest  terms 
the  prophetic  significance  of  what  they  were  building. 
This  address  was  printed  in  The  Coming  Nation 
(July  3,  1897),  of  which  four  thousand  copies  were 
distributed.  It  was  then  revised  by  Mr.  Lloyd,  and 
issued  as  a  red-bound  pamphlet  by  the  Ruskin  press.  * 
Within  two  years,  alas,  the  colony  disbanded.  It  did 
not  fail  financially,  for  after  a  sale  of  its  property  at 

1  Also  included  in  the  posthumous  volume,  Man,  the  Social  Creator. 
See  List  of  'Writings  in  Appendix, 


it 
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Voices  in  the  Wilderness  63 

great  reduction  all  debts  were  paid  and  a  surplus 
handed  to  stockholders,  but  dissensions  arose  which 
made  no  longer  possible  this  honest  experiment  of 
"the  life  together." 

Meanwhile  Lloyd  had  been  receiving  a  series  of 
letters  from  George  Howard  Gibson,  setting  forth  the 
beliefs  of  another  group  who  were  planning  a  community 
based  upon  the  teachings  of  Jesus. 

We  think  [wrote  Mr.  Gibson]  as  all  evils  flow  from 
disobedience  to  the  law,  "Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbour  as 
thyself,"  all  good  must  depend  on  obeying  it,  and  that  it  is 
folly  and  sin  to  wait  for  a  majority  of  our  neighbours  (or  a 
plurality  of  voters)  to  accept  this  law  before  we  enthrone  it 
in  our  own  lives.  .  .  .  We  must  put  together  our  prop- 
erty, labour,  economic  wisdom,  knowledge,  varying  talents, 
christianising  or  democratising  what  we  have  and  are.  . 

The  following  letters  show  Lloyd's  attitude: 

WINNETKA,  Illinois,  18  December,  1895. 

MY  DEAR  MR.  GIBSON: 

I  read  your  letter  with  great  interest  and  sympathy. 
Part  of  your  preamble  for  the  "  Christian  Corporation  "  I  will 
quote  in  a  paper  I  am  now  writing  to  show  how  imminent 
is  the  recognised  reign  of  love  in  the  world.  My  friend, 
Mrs.  Annie  Diggs,  has  already  written  me  about  this 
co-operative  commonwealth.  A  strong  sympathy  stirred 
me  when  she  wrote,  and  it  stirs  again  at  your  words.  There 
is  much  in  me  that  yearns  to  take  up  this  cross  with  some 
one  of  the  many  devoted  disciples  of  the  new  faith  of  Peace 
on  Earth  and  Good  Will  among  men  instead  of  among  men 
after  they  have  become  angels.  But  I  feel  that  my  place 
is  where  I  am,  and  that  my  function  for  the  present  at  least 
is  to  continue  attempting  to  do  what  I  am  now  working  at. 
But  I  look  upon  the  little  crystallisations  of  co-operative 


64  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

communities  now  taking  place  all  over  this  country  as  the 
most  religious  manifestations  of  our  day,  and  I  often 
speculate  as  to  whether  these,  like  the  monasteries  of  the 
middle  ages,  may  not  prove  to  be  the  only  asylums  and 
nurseries  of  civilisation  that  will  survive  the  troublous 
anarchy  I  fear  is  coming.  I  shall  be  always  glad  to  know 
how  you  are  getting  on,  and  to  hear  of  your  plans,  step  by 
step.  I  am  considering  whether  I  could  do  anything  better 
than  to  write  a  history  of  these  co-operative  experiments, 
visiting  each  of  them  for  that  purpose.  If  I  do  so,  I  shall 
perhaps  find  you  in  your  Happy  Valley  in  Colorado.  With 
the  most  affectionate  good  will,  and  God  speed.  .  .  . 

5  Feb.,  1896. 

I  have  been  thinking  closely  about  your  letter  every  day 
since  it  came,  wanting  to  write  you  and  yet  hesitating  to 
do  so  for  fear  of  wounding  you.  But  I  think  I  must  speak 
with  great  frankness  to  avoid  greater  misunderstanding.  To 
plunge  into  the  deepest  water  at  once,  I  am  not  a  Christian 
in  the  sense  in  which  you  seem  to  use  that  word,  and  not  a 
believer  in  the  wisdom  of  attempting  to  organise  a  society 
on  that  basis.  I  ought,  I  see  now,  to  have  become  conscious 
of  the  divergence  in  our  views  when  you  sent  me  the  extract 
from  the  charter  of  the  "Christian  Corporation."  But  I 
so  thoroughly  approved  of  the  substance  of  the  statement 
therein  that  the  question  of  terminology  did  not  force  itself 
on  me.  To  me  it  is  doubtful  if  there  was  such  a  person  as 
Christ,  though  on  the  whole  I  believe  there  was.  If  there 
was  such  a  man,  he  was  not,  according  to  my  apprehension, 
God  or  the  Son  of  God  in  any  other  way  than  you  or  I  am. 
He  was,  no  doubt,  the  Shakespeare  of  Ethics,  and  a  soul  of  a 
charm  that  kept  his  memory  alive  while  tens  of  millions 
were  forgotten.  But  I  think  it  essential  to  our  religious 
and  secular  progress  to  recognise  that  his  teachings,  or  those 
attributed  to  him,  contain  mistakes,  and  that  even  if  true 
for  his  time,  they  are  not  necessarily  true  for  our  time.  And 
yet  I  who  say  this  am  now  writing  a  paper  to  show  that  his 


Voices  in  the  Wilderness  65 

teachings  were  the  generalisation  of  the  best  human  social 
experience  of  centuries,  and  the  sure  clue  to  the  solution  of 
our  present  social  problems.  It  strengthens  my  reliance 
upon  the  value  of  that  which  is  valuable  in  his  teaching 
that  I  regard  him  as  human — one  of  us.  But  I  must  say 
that  I  think  a  community  organised  upon  the  basis  that  he 
was  the  Son  of  God,  and  attempting  any  literal  obedience 
of  his  words,  would  be  a  step  backward  both  in  thought  and 
action.  To  put  it  in  another  way,  I  see  that  the  new 
relations  of  humanity  must  be  on  a  religious  basis.  But  it 
must  be  a  broader  and  newer  basis  than  that  of  Christianity. 
I  do  not  mean  to  object  to  such  an  attempt  as  that  of  the 
"Christian  Corporation, "  but  am  only  defining  my  relations 
to  it. 

This  noble  group,  giving  their  property  and  them- 
selves in  an  ecstasy  of  devotion,  located  their  colony, 
"the  Christian  Commonwealth,"  in  Muscogee  County, 
Georgia,  in  1896.  Their  paper,  The  Social  Gospel, 
was  edited  by  George  Howard  Gibson  and  Ralph 
Albert  son,  associated  with  whom  were  George  D. 
Herron,  William  Thurston  Brown,  Ernest  Howard 
Crosby,  James  P.  Kelley,  Benjamin  Fay  Mills,  S.  H. 
Comings,  and  John  Chipman,  and  through  it  their 
message  was  scattered  broadcast.  Kindred  hearts 
the  country  over  were  watching  them  solicitously. 
"I  am  following  your  efforts,"  wrote  Lloyd,  "with 
the  sincerest  sympathy  and  admiration.  Nothing 
could  be  better  than  the  spirit  in  which  you  are  moving." 
Full  of  hope,  sharing  everything  in  common,  the  colony 
began  a  heroic  career.  But  terrible  hardships  arose, 
sad  stories  of  which  reached  their  friends  in  the  North, 
who  came  to  their  aid.  However,  outside  relief  could 
not  avail,  and  after  four  years'  noble  endeavour,  the 
brave  survivors  surrendered. 


VOL.  II 5 


66  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

Other  regenerative  organisations  there  were,  among 
them  the  "Co- Workers  Fraternity,"  a  section  of  the 
Co-operative  Association  of  America  of  which  Lloyd 
was  a  life  member,  and  the  Industrial  Brotherhood,  a 
co-operative  organisation  of  world-wide  scope,  whose 
international  union  he  joined.  But  this  glow  of  hope 
was  as  brief  as  beautiful.  As  the  century  drew  to  a 
close,  a  returning  prosperity  diverted  the  people,  and 
the  advance  phalanx  of  the  American  labour  movement 
became  again  political. 

While  they  existed,  Lloyd  kept  these  experiments 
under  his  sympathetic  observation.  They  were  social 
incarnations  of  that  rising  spirit  of  the  new  conscience 
of  which  he  was  so  rapturous  a  herald.  As  he  told  the 
Ruskin  colonists:  "They  are  the  monasteries  in  which 
the  light  of  the  new  faith  is  kept  burning  on  the  moun- 
tain tops  until  the  dark  age  is  over."  He  believed  that 
theorising  should  travel  side  by  side  with  action,  and 
the  sight  of  men  and  women  giving  their  earnest  lives 
to  prove  or  disprove  an  impulse,  suffering  privation 
in  the  wilderness  to  forge  experience,  won  his  admira- 
tion. Their  broken  experiments  were  endorsements  of 
the  co-operative  idea,  each  one  revealing  anew  its 
extraordinary  wealth-producing  power.  When  one 
tragic  story  after  another  reached  him  of  fields  deserted 
and  members  departed,  he  read  success  in  their  down- 
fall. 

Always  failures?  Only  within  these  communities  has 
there  been  seen,  in  the  wide  borders  of  the  United  States, 
a  social  life  where  hunger  and  cold,  prostitution,  intem- 
perance, poverty,  slavery,  crime,  premature  old  age,  and 
unnecessary  mortality,  panic  and  industrial  terror,  have 
been  abolished.  If  they  had  done  this  only  for  a  year, 
they  would  deserve  to  be  called  the  only  successful  "so- 


Voices  in  the  Wilderness  67 

ciety"  on  this  continent,  and  some  of  them  are  generations 
old.  They  are  little  oases  of  people  in  our  desert  of  per- 
sons. All  this  has  not  been  done  by  saints  in  heaven,  but 
on  earth  by  average  men  and  women. 

That  these  communities  have  failed — if  they  have — [he 
put  in  his  note-book]  only  proves  what  the  break-up  of  old 
civilisations,  of  the  trade-unions,  etc.,  proves,  that  the 
social  problem  cannot  be  solved  by  separate  successes,  nor 
selfish  successes  of  a  few,  but  must  be  solved  in  the  bosom 
of  society  by  all  for  all. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

"IN   CO-OPERATIVE  LAND" 

HENRY  D.  LLOYD  now  in  1897  planned  the  first 
of  his  journeys  abroad  to  bring  back  to  the 
American  people  news  of  the  movements  for  emancipa^ 
tion.  "A  student  of  events,"  he  styled  himself.  He 
saw  that  the  people  were  moving  along  two  lines,  pri- 
vately by  the  development  of  co-operative  industry, 
and  politically  by  democracy  or  socialism — terms  which 
he  used  interchangeably.  At  that  time  hopes  for  co- 
operation were  running  high.  At  the  Co-operative 
Conference  in  Chicago  in  June,  1897,  his  advice  was: 
"  Get  facts. "  He  was  chosen  as  American  delegate  to 
the  third  congress  of  the  International  Co-operative 
Alliance,  of  which  he  was  a  member,  and  he  started 
for  Delft  in  September. 

As  a  delegate  of  the  Ruskin  Co-operative  Association  [he 
wrote  in  The  Coining  Nation],  I  was  warmly  welcomed,  and 
was  made  honorary  president  of  the  second  day's  session. 
Many  of  the  members  knew  about  Ruskin,  and  all  were 
eager  to  learn  all  they  could  of  its  kind  of  co-operation. 

As  he  was  familiar  with  the  history  and  present 
status  of  the  European  co-operative  movement  through 
its  literature,  he  was  not  looking  for  surprises.  But 
he  found  one.  Conspicuous  in  the  congress  was  a 

68 


"In  Co-operative  Land "  69 

group  of  English  delegates,  who,  with  missionary 
enthusiasm,  were  preaching  to  the  old  co-operators 
at  every  opportunity  a  new  gospel.  "There  was  faith, 
hope,  purpose, — the  spirit  of  the  pioneers,  a  breath 
from  the  people  itself — in  the  delegates  who  stood  for 
Labour  Copartnership."  They  told  of  workmen  who 
were  building  and  operating  their  own  factories  and 
mills,  and  were  about  to  attempt  farming,  and  who, 
in  a  conscious  spirit  of  reform,  were  extending  their 
beneficent  conditions  as  far  as  possible,  saying:  "We 
must  make  men  as  well  as  money,  we  must  help  our 
brothers."  This  was  the  gospel  of  labour  copartner- 
ship, a  new  word  and  a  new  idea — the  only  novelty, 
Lloyd  said,  at  the  congress.  It  began  to  dawn  upon 
him  that  whereas  he  had  thought  he  knew  all  about 
co-operation,  he  had  really  not  grasped  its  most  sig- 
nificant development.  Here  was  the  ideal  of  the  social- 
ists— that  the  workmen  own  their  instruments  of 
production — achieving  itself. 

He  sought  the  acquaintance  of  Henry  Vivian,  secre- 
tary of  the  Labour  Copartnership  Association,  and 
Thomas  Blandford,  enthusiastic  preachers  of  this  new 
faith.  Relinquishing  his  purpose  of  going  to  the 
Continent  for  special  investigations,  he  determined 
to  go  at  once  with  them  to  England,  where  a  confer- 
ence was  to  be  held  at  Rugby,  and  to  see  for  himself 
what  this  new  word  of  co-operation  meant.  "I  have 
been  warming  myself  by  the  picture  of  a  fire,"  he  said, 
"it  will  be  better  to  go  to  the  fire  itself. " 

The  Rugby  conference,  called  to  consider  the  applica- 
tion of  the  new  idea  to  agriculture,  impressed  him 
deeply.  He  sat  there  filled  with  wonder  at  the  scene, 
a  body  of  earnest  working  men  deliberating  in  a  dig- 
nified parliament.  A  more  alert  audience,  he  said, 


70  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

he  had  never  seen,  showing  as  it  did  the  fire  of  deter- 
mination and  the  enthusiasm  of  men  conscious  that 
they  were  engaged  in  a  great  cause.  "It  was  a  sensa- 
tion to  sit  in  a  meeting  composed  wholly  of  working  men, 
considering  plans  for  their  emancipation,  and  hear  the 
serene  confidence  with  which  they  declared  themselves 
to  have  all  the  capital  they  wanted. "  He  was  especially 
impressed  by  the  good  temper  that  prevailed. 

There  was  a  sharp  rift  of  variance  in  opinion  in  the 
British  delegation  at  Delft ;  and  yet  its  members  were  able 
to  work  together.  Even  in  the  struggles  which  the  different 
schools  had  with  each  other,  as  well  as  in  the  remarks  they 
made  about  each  other  to  me  privately,  there  was  a  con- 
sideration and  self-restraint,  a  sort  of  decent  human  feeling 
for  each  other ^and  a  good  fellowship,  which  was  soothing  to 
one  accustomed  to  the  much  more  acrid  temper  in  the 
controversial  regions  of  New  World  reform.  They  were  all 
Britons  and  knew  each  other  even  in  their  differences.1 

They  were  discussing  their  most  vexing  problem, 
what  he  called  the  "newest,  least  successful,  hardest, 
and  most  encouraging  point — farming."  He  saw  its 
difficulties  approached  with  that  reasonableness  and 
common-sense  characteristic  of  the  English  tempera- 
ment. ' '  The  feeling  about  the  evils  of  the  land  situation, " 
he  said,  "was  deep — very  deep;  I  do  not  think  it  would 
be  exaggerated  if  called  passionate. "  But  co-operators 
had  long  passed  the  stage  of  denunciation;  what  they 
now  wanted  to  hear  of  was:  "What  shall  we  do  about 
it?"  It  was  not  that  they  did  not  understand  the  root 
of  the  evil — far  from  it,  but  they  believed  that  every 
great  change  in  political  structure  has  had  its  way  pre- 
pared by  a  corresponding  domestic  change. 

1  Labor  Copartnership,  April,  1898. 


"In  Co-operative  Land"  71 

They  are  so  completely  in  earnest  in  their  land  campaign 
[said  Mr.  Lloyd]  as  to  begin  to  march  at  once.  They  will 
not  wait  till  land  taxes  have  been  re-imposed  on  the  land- 
lords, or  the  Australian  system  of  easy  and  cheap  transfers 
has  been  adopted;  but  will  go  on  now,  taking  things  as  they 
are,  and  will  get  such  land  as  they  can,  and  will  prove  that 
it  can  be  cultivated  profitably  by  the  co-operative  method. 

He  found,  moreover,  that  it  was  not  a  sordid  atmo- 
sphere, limited  to  the  purely  selfish  aim  of  the  acquisition 
of  land  and  goods;  if  that  were  all,  he  probably  would 
not  have  remained  half  an  hour,  but  he  saw  that  while 
rooted  in  common-sense  and  knowledge  of  affairs, 
it  planned  for  the  emancipation  of  the  workers.  So  he 
stayed,  and  filled  his  note-book  with  details  about 
root-crops,  piggeries,  "the  lives  of  cottages,"  and  the 
figures  of  copartnership  balance  sheets,  omitting  no 
gleam  of  "that  moral  illumination"  which  he  declared 
so  much  more  important  than  their  pecuniary  success. 
His  admiration  grew  as  he  saw  that  after  "a  century 
of  hard  knocks,"  their  courage  to  begin  again  was 
ever  fresh.  He  marvelled  at  what  he  called  the  "un- 
staggered  cheerfulness"  with  which  they  listened  to 
stories  of  failure,  wisely  defining  the  small  financial 
deficiency  as  "the  cost  of  buying  experience. " 

There  is  no  such  word  as  "failure"  left  in  the  vocabulary 
of  a  movement  which,  beginning  with  the  tuppence  a  week 
of  underpaid  working  men  in  garrets  and  ridiculous  little 
shops  in  back  streets,  has  in  thirty-six  years  done  a  business 
of  $4,500,000,000,  and  divided  among  the  working  people 
$360,000,000  of  money  in  dividends,  opening  windows  of 
hope  into  thousands  of  lives  out  of  which  hope  had  been 
taxed  by  the  greed  and  cruelty  of  power. 

Sitting  there  watching  the  men  behind  whom  lay 


72  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

three  generations  of  failure  there  probably  flashed  into 
his  mind  the  struggling  attempts  at  co-operation  by  his 
countrymen,  which  had  been  filling  his  correspondence, 
and  he  determined  to  fire  their  courage  by  showing  the 
wisdom  and  the  pluck  which  made  the  English  co- 
operators  say:  "Failure  is  the  road  to  success." 

Following  this,  he  made  a  tour  of  Great  Britain  and 
Ireland,  to  see  labour  copartnership  at  work,  compar- 
ing it,  as  he  did  so,  with  the  many  older  forms  of  co- 
operation. Thus  he  journeyed  to  Kettering,  Leicester, 
Burnley,  Woolwich,  Hebden  Bridge,  covering  the 
co-operative  field,  Henry  Vivian  or  Thomas  Blandford 
usually  accompanying  him.  The  friendships  then 
formed  were  warmly  cherished. 

We  got  on  famously  together  [said  Mr.  Vivian].  He  was 
a  delightful  companion.  I  used  to  admire  the  way  in  which 
he  would  strike  up  friendly  relations  with  the  most  humble 
and  obscure  working  men  at  our  conferences  and  draw  out 
the  simple  story  of  their  lives.  An  uneducated  workman 
would  perhaps  take  part  in  a  conference  and  would  speak 
badly  but  Mr.  Lloyd  would  see  that  the  idea  he  wished  to 
express  was  good.  After  the  conference  he  would  talk  with 
the  delegate  and  get  to  the  bottom  of  the  idea. 

James  Deans  took  him  over  the  Scottish  institutions. 
"These  were  three  of  the  most  pleasant  days  in  my 
experience  in  connection  with  the  co-operative  move- 
ment, "  said  Mr.  Deans  in  recalling  it.  He  crossed 
into  Ireland  to  see  the  co-operative  creameries,  "the 
golden  veins  of  the  Emerald  Isle,"  and  witnessed  the 
remarkable  development  of  agricultural  co-operation 
under  the  inspiring  leadership  of  Sir  Horace  Plunkett, 
between  whom  and  himself  there  grew  a  high  mutual 
regard.  Mr.  Blandford  accompanied  him  and  won  his 


"  In  Co-operative  Land"  73 

admiration.    When  he  died  two  years  later  Mr.  Lloyd 
wrote  to  Holyoake: 

I  was  overwhelmed  with  grief  at  the  news  of  Mr.  Bland- 
ford's  death.  A  finer  man  no  movement  ever  had.  He  was 
a  co-operative  host  in  himself.  He  made  my  trip  in  Ireland 
a  joy  as  well  as  very  instructive ;  his  devotion  to  his  cause, 
and  his  complete  surrender  of  his  comfort,  his  pleasure,  and 
even  his  safety,  made  him  a  remarkable  man.  We  shall 
not  soon  see  his  like.  But  his  work  lives  after  him,  and  his 
friends  cannot  doubt  that  all  through  Great  Britain,  and 
even  far  beyond  it,  mankind  are  moving  forward  to  a  better 
future  with  more  hope  and  strength  because  of  that  which 
he  did  for  them  and  for  the  cause  of  co-operation. 

Lloyd  gathered  facts  from  all  sides,  from  the  private 
trader,  the  trade-unionist,  the  professor  of  political 
economy,  the  reformer,  the  socialist,  the  employers 
such  as  George  Thomson  of  Huddersfield  and  Sir 
George  Livesey  of  the  South  Metropolitan  Gas  Com- 
pany, whose  capitalistic  labour  copartnership  he  found 
not  less  interesting  than  the  one  instituted  by  the  work- 
ing men.  No  small  part  of  the  inspiration  gained  came 
from  the  co-operators  themselves.  He  met  the  survivors 
of  the  first  generation,  John  Malcolm  Ludlow  and 
George  Jacob  Holyoake,  both  octogenarians  whose 
youthful  ideals  lived  on  untouched  by  the  commercial- 
ism which  was  beginning  its  blight.  He  met  also  the 
leaders  in  the  second  and  third  generation.  One  and 
all  he  plied  with  minute  questions  and  argument, 
following  all  clues,  leaving  no  point  unchallenged. 
They  looked  upon  him  as  a  friend,  one  who  not  only 
saw  quickly  the  full  meaning  of  the  movement  but 
who  gave  effective  criticism  where  it  was  needed. 
"Such  critics  are  our  best  friends  and  helpers,"  they 
said. 


74  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

Mr.  H.  D.  Lloyd  [wrote  Holyoake1]  a  wandering  advocate 
of  new  devices  in  social  life,  came  from  America,  spoke  at 
the  Kurhaus  Banquet  at  Scheveningen  and  visited  the 
chief  centres  of  co-operation  in  England — interesting  every 
one  by  his  wisdom  of  enquiry,  but  never  disclosing  his 
experience,  or  range  of  prior  investigation.  Though  I 
invited  him  to  the  National  Liberal  Club,  and  spent  two 
hours  with  him,  and  was  charmed  with  the  modesty  of  his 
manner,  I  never  knew  who  he  was,  nor  why  he  cared  for 
the  information,  until  long  after. 

No  achievement  enlisted  a  higher  admiration  from 
him  than  the  grey  stone  building  set  on  a  hill  at  West 
Kilbride  on  the  Scottish  shore,  overlooking  a  marvel- 
lous view  of  sea  and  mountain,  the  home  built  by 
co-operators  as  a  refuge  for  their  old  and  ill  members, 
and  a  playground  for  the  well  ones.  It  was  one  of  the 
efforts  whereby  they  were  striving  to  get  "a  newer  and 
higher  class  of  benefits"  than  those  of  making  and 
dividing  profits.  It  all  arose  from  a  talk  between 
James  Deans  and  Robert  Duncanson,  who,  as  they 
were  walking  over  the  Glasgow  Green  one  day,  were 
discussing  the  case  of  a  co-operator  who  was  getting 
old  and  frail.  The  need  of  a  refuge  for  such  as  he 
stirred  in  their  hearts.  "To  think  of  such  a  thing,  was 
with  the  co-operators  to  do  it,"  said  Lloyd.  This  home 
he  considered  the  finest  expression  of  the  movement 
in  Great  Britain,  and  it  seems  meet  that  from  its  doors 
he  should  have  been  bidden  good  speed  on  his  mis- 
sion. As  he  left,  Mr.  William  Barclay's  farewell  words 
were:  "Go,  and  spread  the  news  of  this  co-operative 
movement.  It  has  been  a  gospel  dear  to  me  a  great 
many  years. "  Lloyd  did  so  gladly,  for  what  he  saw  had 
renewed  his  courage.  "To  an  American,  accustomed 

1  Labour  Copartnership,  January,  1898. 


4 '  In  Co-operative  Land  "  75 

to  the  fierce  passions  which  rage  in  our  industrial 
world,"  he  said,  "going  to  co-operative  land  is  like 
reaching  harbour  after  a  tempestuous  voyage. " 

When  he  turned  homeward  he  left  behind  many 
warm  friends,  and  bore  away  a  note-book  stuffed  with 
facts,  and  an  enthusiastic  determination  to  write  the 
story  into  a  pamphlet  for  the  American  people. 

This  was  news  to  me,  and  as  I  found  that  even  among 
distinguished  students  of  social  science,  leaders  of  thought, 
prominent  trade-unionists  and  agitators  and  men  of  affairs 
in  England,  there  were  not  a  few  who  were  unaware  of 
what  was  going  on  under  their  own  windows,  it  occurred  to 
me  that  it  might  be  news  to  some  of  the  people  in  America. 

In  December,  1897,  he  wrote  to  Blandford: 

I  have  been  hard  at  work  at  my  desk  now  for  several 
weeks  writing  out  my  notes  of  my  trip,  and  have  already 
enough  matter  on  hand  to  make  quite  a  respectable  little 
book.  I  hope  to  get  this  out  early  in  the  year. 

In  three  months  the  proofs  were  being  corrected 
by  his  English  friends  and  soon  the  little  book,  Labour 
Copartnership,  which  he  modestly  described  as 
"Notes  of  a  Visit,"  was  on  the  market,  the  first  of 
his  laboratory  investigations  to  prove  to  men  that  they 
were  already  living  the  life  of  love  together,  and  that 
it  was  bringing  with  it  wealth  and  happiness.  Hardly 
a  page  but  had  its  stem  of  fact  bearing  a  flower  of  hope. 
At  all  points  he  emphasised  the  superiorities  of  this 
new  industry,  where  with  each  worker  both  employer 
and  employee,  work  was  well  done,  and  so  apportioned 
that  none  need  be  idle,  so  arranged  that  conditions 
were  safe  and  pleasant. 


76  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

This  was  one  of  the  first  characteristics  of  the  methods  of 
industrial  democracy  which  caught  my  eye,  and  inspired 
me  with  hope  and  confidence  in  its  business  ability  so 
sedulously  decried.  .  .  .  Everywhere  the  British  industrial 
democracy  has  brightened  and  lightened  and  beautified 
the  habitat  of  work  and  business.  When  the  democracy 
opens  a  new  store  or  new  factory,  it  makes  a  celebration  of 
it,  and  goes  dancing  and  singing  through  the  doors  of  the 
new  opportunity. 

He  noted  that  in  this  form  of  industry,  where  a  man's 
mind  and  heart  were  in  the  business,  "members" 
was  a  new  name  for  "hands,"  that  the  consumer  was 
recognised  as  a  partner  rather  than  a  victim,  that  its 
directors  directed,  that  its  successful  concerns  with 
missionary  zeal  hastened  to  give  experience  and 
loans  to  foster  infant  organisations,  that  in  its  affairs 
were  no  secret  dealings : 

To  one  used  to  the  secrecy  of  private  business  there  is 
something  almost  startling  in  the  publicity  with  which  the 
democracy  manages  its  affairs.  Any  co-operative  store  or 
factory  is  ready  to  bring  out  its  balance  sheet,  tell  about  its 
profits,  how  they  are  divided,  etc.  I  never  asked  a  question 
in  a  co-operative  counting-room  about  the  business  to  which 
there  was  not  immediately  a  full  and  frank  reply.  .  .  . 

He  told  of  all  this  with  faith  and  fervour  as  a  gospel — 
a  gospel  of  facts,  as  his  other  works  had  been. 

I  wrote  Labour  Copartnership  because  the  facts  I 
found  in  Great  Britain  of  the  self-employment  of  the 
working  men  on  co-operative  principles,  and  the  capital- 
isation of  labour  itself,  were  news  to  me,  and  I  hoped  they 
would  be  news  to  others.  I  hoped  they  would  be  news  of 
glad  tidings ;  news  showing  that  whatever  other  ways  there 
might  be  of  solving  the  business  problem — the  problem  of 


"In  Co-operative  Land"  77 

our  times — here  was  a  path  of  voluntary  effort  by  which 
the  pick  of  the  people  might  begin  their  march  to  self- 
employment  and  self-government,  pioneering  the  rest  of  us. ' 

To  enter  that  radiant  region  where  the  "wage  fund"  and 
"the  supply  and  demand"  of  the  "labour  market"  and  the 
"survival  of  the  fittest"  were  operated  in  harmony  with 
brotherhood  and  the  golden  rule,  was  for  me  an  adventure 
so  agreeable  that  I  could  not  resist  the  invitation  to  share  it 
with  the  public. 

His  book  gave  the  first  place  to  the  farm  movement, 
about  which  he  wrote  to  Charles  B.  Spahr: 

I  am  firm  in  my  belief  that  on  the  whole  agricultural 
co-operation  is  the  most  important  of  the  new  develop- 
ments of  the  movement  in  England.  It  was  for  that 
reason  .  .  .  that  I  gave  it  the  first  place.  The  fact  that  it 
is  not  in  the  hands  of  the  belated  agricultural  labourers  them- 
selves may  be  regrettable  but  is,  after  all,  only  a  repetition 
of  the  evolution  of  commercial  and  productive  co-operation 
itself.  The  co-operative  stores  were  started  by  working 
men  as  these  farms  are  now  being  started  by  co-operative 
storekeepers.2  I  have  formed  the  conclusion  from  a 
variety  of  circumstances,  which  I  will  not  stop  here  to 
detail,  that  agricultural  co-operation  is  destined  to  become 
a  very  big  thing  in  England.  It  is  now  in  the  stage  in  which 
distributive  co-operation  was  in  its  early  days,  the  phase  of 
more  failures  than  successes,  and  the  phase  in  which  it  still 

1  Book  News,  December,  1898. 

*  Mr.  Lloyd  was  always  outspoken  in  his  preference  for  co-operative 
action  initiated,  managed,  and  financed  by  the  working  men  themselves; 
but  in  the  meantime  believed  in  taking  what  could  be  had,  pointing 
out  that  the  entire  movement  had  reached  its  success  by  passing  through 
a  phase  of  being  led  by  middle  class  enthusiasts.  The  movement  of 
the  co-operators  to  start  copartnership  farms  has  now  been  succeeded 
by  a  flourishing  movement  of  farmers  and  labourers,  "the  co-operators 
helping  only  with  their  blessing,"  writes  Henry  Vivian  in  1911. 


78 

needs  the  help  of  leaders  outside  the  workers,  as  in  Ireland, 
but  inside  the  workers  elsewhere.  The  plant  has,  I  believe, 
unmistakably  got  root  and  is  going  to  be  a  very  large  and 
fruitful  tree.  In  default  of  initiative  on  the  part  of  agri- 
cultural labourers,  co-operative  farms  are  being  organised  by 
the  class  who  have  co-operative  initiative  and  experience, 
and  I  think  it  is  a  most  happy  fact  that  this  is  so.  It  is 
along  these  lines  of  least  resistance  that  agriculture  can 
most  easily  and  quickly  be  lifted  out  of  its  present  primitive 
condition  industrially,  and  brought  to  its  place  in  the  list 
of  the  highly  organised  industries  of  the  world.  And  as 
agriculture  is  the  most  important  of  all  industries  this 
seemed  to  me  the  weightiest  thing  I  saw  in  Great  Britain. 
I  am  thus  strenuous  about  this  matter  because  it  seems 
to  me  that  I  have  more  faith  than  some  of  my  English 
co-operative  friends  in  a  matter  in  which  faith  is  of  the 
utmost  importance  and  I  would  like  to  use  what  little 
influence  I  can  to  give  them  to-day  as  sturdy  a  faith  as  was 
needed  by  their  predecessors  to  bring  the  movement  where 
it  is  now. 

He  wrote  also  to  Blandford : 

The  conviction  has  steadily  grown  upon  me  the  longer  I 
have  thought  on  the  subject  that  the  co-operators  of  Eng- 
land are  altogether  too  faint-hearted  in  their  attitude 
towards  farming.  You  will  perhaps  think  it  absurd  for  me 
to  suppose  that  I  can  see  any  more  clearly  into  this  than 
you  who  have  had  so  much  more  experience  than  I,  but  yet 
it  may  be  that  my  position,  apart  and  on  the  outside,  does 
give  me  an  advantage  as  an  observer. 

It  seems  to  me  that  the  failures  in  the  farming  movement 
ought  to  be  regarded  just  as,  looking  backward,  we  can  now 
see  the  proper  way  of  looking  at  the  failures  of  the  distribu- 
tive movement.  Of  one  thing  I  feel  absolutely  certain,  that 
co-operative  farming  in  England  is  going  to  take  no  back- 
ward steps  and  that  it  is  to  be  by  far  the  most  important 


"Jn  Co-operative  Land"  79 

development  that  the  co-operative  movement  has  yet  had. 
I  think  our  reformers,  including  co-operators,  are  too 
municipal,  too  citified.  I  think  they  have  largely  lost  the 
"sense  of  the  soil." 

He  was,  of  course,  criticised  for  including  in  his  book 
the  South  Metropolitan  Gas  Company's  scheme,  a 
capitalistic  labour  copartnership.  He  wrote  to  Sir 
George  Livesey: 

Some  of  my  friends  in  America  have  criticised  me  for 
giving  the  prominence  to  your  experiment  which  I  did  in  my 
book.  They  insist  that  I  am  helping  a  movement  whose 
purposeis  to  "nobble"  the  labour  and  other  reformers.  They 
have,  however,  entirely  failed  to  convince  me.  My  theory 
of  progress  is  that  it  must  proceed  along  a  great  number  of 
different  lines  simultaneously.  There  will  never  be  a  single 
solution  for  the  ills  of  society,  nor  a  single  model  for  social 
organisation.  I  do  not  call  myself  a  socialist  in  any  sec- 
tarian sense,  but  even  if  I  did,  I  cannot  see  why  such  efforts 
as  yours  should  not  be  welcomed.  Anything,  it  seems  to 
me,  that  raises  the  general  level  of  intelligence,  independence, 
and  morale  helps  the  whole  body. 

He  had  a  controversy  with  John  Burns  on  that  point. 
In  those  days  Burns  was  one  of  the  men  whom  Lloyd 
always  sought  on  his  visits  to  England  and  many 
were  their  talks  in  the  study  at  Battersea  or  as  they 
journeyed  to  Hampton  Court,  or  had  tea  on  the  Terrace 
of  the  House  of  Commons. 

We  had  good  times  talking  things  over  [said  Burns].  But 
so  loving  and  kindly  was  his  nature  that  friends  no  more 
than  pointed  out  their  difference  of  opinion.  They  never 
carried  it  any  further.  A  good  chap! 

•    Many  thanks  for  your  book  [Burns  wrote  to  Lloyd],  the 


8o  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

conclusions  of  which  I  entirely  dissent  from.  Bonus  and 
profit-sharing  in  the  South  Metropolitan  Gas  Works  have 
increased  the  accidents  from  three  to  seven  per  cent.,  and 
have  isolated  the  recipients  from  the  rest  of  their  fellows, 
which  was  intended. 

Is  this  true  about  the  accidents?  [Lloyd  asked  Vivian 
anxiously].  For  the  other  criticism  I  care  nothing.  The 
superior  tactics  of  the  capitalist  in  this  case  would  be 
abundantly  justified  even  from  the  most  radical  point  of 
view  if  they  compelled  the  advocates  of  labour  on  the  one 
side  to  make  a  corresponding  advance  in  their  tactics. 
Anything  that  lifts  the  plane  of  this  contest  above  its 
hitherto  too  animal  features  is  a  public  benefactor. 

He  wrote  to  Burns: 

...  I  do  not  wish  to  contradict  you,  but  when  you  say 
that  you  entirely  dissent  from  my  conclusions  as  to  labour 
copartnership  I  feel  very  much  like  saying:  "No  you 
don't!"  I  took  great  pains  in  writing  that  chapter  on  the 
South  Metropolitan  scheme  to  refrain  from  uttering  a  word 
which  might  seem  to  indicate  that  I  thought  this  was  to  be 
looked  upon  as  in  any  way  a  solvent  of  the  labour  and 
capital  question,  and  I  also  indicate  all  the  objections  to  it 
that  came  within  my  cognisance.  I  was  fully  alive  to  the 
importance  of  the  view  which  you  urge;  and  you  will  see 
that  I  quote  freely  from  the  officials  of  the  Gas  Workers' 
Union  under  that  head.  But  none  the  less  I  thought  the 
scheme  one  which  was  most  interesting  and  well  worth 
describing.  Such  tactics  on  the  part  of  capitalists  certainly 
mark  a  great  advance  in  their  methods  in  the  struggle 
between  labour  and  capital,  for  they  are  tactics  of  civilisation 
and  not  merely  stratagems  of  brute  economic  force.  They 
will  certainly  tend  to  compel  a  re-alignment  of  the  forces  of 
capital  and  labour  in  their  struggle  on  far  more  enlightened 
lines  than  those  of  the  old  field  of  battle.  If  all  the  em- 


"  In  Co-operative  Land  "  81 

0 

ployers  in  the  world  should  give  a  share  of  the  profits  and  a  \ 
voice  in  the  management  it  would,  I  believe,  only  hasten 
the  day  of  the  triumph  of  democracy.  I  agree  with 
Thorold  Rogers  that  revolutions  are  born  of  prosperity.  I 
express  in  my  book  the  conviction  that  in  the  labour  co- 
partnership movement,  the  working  man  is  getting  an 
education  in  the  administration  of  industry  which  will  not 
only  be  of  the  highest  use  to  him  in  the  socialisation  of 
industry  but  will  be  indispensable.  We  cannot  operate  a 
democracy  of  socialistic  industry  without  democratised  or 
socialistic  working  men,  and  the  labour  copartnership 
world  seems  to  me  an  admirable  training  school  for  the 
production  of  the  future  presidents  and  governors  of  indus- 
try. ,  If  the  world  of  industry  were  socialised  to-morrow  it 
would  be  to  the  working  men  who  had  been  trained  in  the 
labour  copartnership  works  that  we  should  have  to  turn  for 
our  only  experienced  leaders.  I  do  not  know  where  else  we 
would  find  any  outside  of  the  limited  industrial  functions  of 
the  state  and  municipality. 

Thus  he  took  the  trouble  to  report  labour  copart- 
nership as  important  news  of  the  passing  day.  He 
greatly  respected  honourable  business  success  and  he 
interpreted  this  magnificent  movement  which  was 
creating  material  prosperity  for  the  people  in  terms  of 
the  highest  spiritual  achievement. 

It  is  an  established  religion,  for  co-operation  is  not  a 
method  of  business  merely,  but  an  ideal  of  conduct,  and  a 
theory  of  human  relations.  Without  cathedrals,  creeds, 
rituals,  or  priests,  it  has  not  only  openly  professed,  but  has 
successfully  institutionalised  the  golden  rule  in  business. 

As  he  expected,  it  proved  to  be  news.  The  progress 
of  the  working  men  in  making  themselves  owners  of 
the  instruments  of  production  in  factory,  mill,  creamery, 

VOL.    II 6 


82  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

and  farm  was  a  surprise  to  nearly  all  American  readers, 
even  well  informed  economists  having  little  conception 
of  it.  This  was  almost  as  true  in  England,  where  the 
story  had  never  been  so  graphically  or  comprehensively 
told.  It  followed  Mrs.  Beatrice  Potter  Webb's  and 
Benjamin  Jones's  books  on  co-operation,  but  was  the 
first  to  describe  the  new  departure  of  labour  copartner- 
ship. In  escaping  the  usual  confusion  between  this 
and  the  Rochdale  system,  to  which,  as  to  the  familiar 
story  of  distributive  stores,  he  paid  little  attention,  he 
won  the  special  regard  of  those  in  the  movement.  Men 
like  Edward  Owen  Greening,  born  and  brought  up  in 
the  ranks,  said  that  he  grasped  the  subject  in  a  wonder- 
ful way. 

You  have  succeeded  in  focusing  the  results  of  our  work 
[wrote  Robert  Halstead],  and  in  presenting  the  principles 
and,  genius  of  our  movement  in  a  way  that  speaks  volumes 
for  your  industry  in  gathering  and  your  insight  in  dis- 
criminating facts,  and  realising  the  divergent  veins  and 
essential  differences  of  co-operators.  All  of  us  who  are 
believers  in  labour  copartnership  must  feel  a  great  in- 
debtedness to  you. 

One  who  has  acquired  such  insight  in  a  short  time  into 
our  movement  [said  another]  may  be  well  taken  as  an 
authority  on  what  is  possible  in  his  own  country. 

Sir  George  Livesey  wrote: 

As  to  your  most  interesting  book  on  copartnership  I  can 
only  say  I  read  it  with  the  greatest  pleasure  and  learnt  much 
from  it.  It  is  strange  that  Englishmen  should  be  indebted 
to  an  American  for  the  best  account  of  what  is  going  on  in 
their  own  country  in  the  direction  of  copartnership.  I 


Photograph  of  Mr.  Lloyd  in  1898. 

By  Hollinger,  New  York. 


"  In  Co-operative  Land  "  83 

have  seen  nothing  to  compare  with  it  and  much  of  the 
information  was  quite  new  to  me. 

In  regard  to  your  special  chapter  on  Workmen  Directors 
in  which  you  do  the  South  Metropolitan  Gas  Company  a 
great  service,  I  must  say  it  is  the  best  account  extant ;  it  is  as 
correct  as  to  the  facts  as  I  could  have  made  it  and  much 
more  interesting  than  anything  I  could  have  written.  It 
passes  my  comprehension  how  you  did  it  so  well.  ...  Of 
course  the  Workmen  Directors  have  not  worked  a  revolution 
in  the  management  either  one  way  or  the  other,  but  they 
have  acted  as  gentlemen  and  with  good  common-sense.  .  .  . 
Your  enthusiasm  on  the  question  of  copartnership  is  very 
contagious  and  your  interest  in  our  work  very  gratifying  to 
us. 

Many  admirers  missed  in  the  book  the  brilliant 
fire  of  his  denunciatory  work,  which  had  given  place  to 
easy,  attractive  narrative,  not  overburdened  with 
statistics  or  propaganda,  and  now  and  then  rising  to  a 
clear  note  of  hope  and  inspiration.  It  was  no  more  than 
it  claimed  to  be,  a  reporter's  account.  "You  were  too 
modest  by  half,"  wrote  Spahr.  "One  page  of  your 
say-so  was  worth  dozens  from  the  officials  of  those 
[co-operative]  societies. " 

Tho  designedly  not  what  is  nowadays  called  "scientific" 
.  .  .  [Mr.  Lloyd  wrote  to  Carroll  D.  Wright],  [it]  tells  some 
truths  in  a  manner  that  I  think  will  reach  the  people;  which 
all  "scientific"  matter  does  not  do. 

It  had  its  influence,  and  was  to  sociological  students 
the  most  important  book  of  its  year.  Its  figures  took 
people's  breath  away.  It  cheered  the  despondent  as 
he  hoped,  showing  that  a  nobler  spirit  was  growing  in 
the  world .  ' '  Mr.  Lloyd's  mingled  humanity  and  sanity, '  * 
said  Mr.  Salter,  "never  showed  to  better  advantage  than 


84  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

in  this  book,  bringing  more  light  and  love  into  the 
world."  Its  message  found  expression  in  many  of  the 
pulpits.  It  inspired  courage  in  those  who  had  lost 
faith  in  political  movements.  It  revived  the  interest 
of  many  who  from  the  capitalistic  tendencies  of  the 
co-operative  stores  had  registered  co-operation  as  a 
failure.  It  kindled  new  prestige  for  the  working 
man.  British  economists  had  taken  the  lead  in 
defining  with  rigid  precision  the  distinct  provinces 
of  management,  capital,  and  labour,  making  it  ap- 
pear impracticable  that  working  men  could  ever, 
as  a  class,  take  part  in  the  control  of  industry;  yet 
under  their  very  eyes  was  here  illuminated  the  vision 
of  British  workmen  displaying  every  grade  and  type 
of  ability.  The  brilliant  figures  of  its  success  could 
not  be  denied,  and  business  men  were  amazed.  The 
facts  of  co-operation,  his  book  said,  had  put  an  end 
for  ever  to  the  superstition  that  great  commercial, 
financial,  and  administrative  ability  was  the  monopoly 
of  a  class. 

I  have  not  met  in  the  world  of  private  enterprise,  a  finer 
set  of  young  business  managers  than  the  intelligent,  alert, 
industrious,  and  devoted  young  men  of  the  labour  copartner- 
ship enterprises  of  Great  Britain. 

Those  grappling  with  the  labour  movement  either 
as  students  or  as  working  men  felt,  as  Jane  Addams 
said,  "a  stirring  of  old  faiths." 

If  the  working  people  are  to  be  the  future  rulers  of  the 
world  [wrote  Lloyd1],  as  Mr.  Gladstone  said  in  one  of  his 
most  impressive  speeches,  it  is  full  of  good  omen  that  with 
all  the  terrible  handicaps  on  them,  giving  them  not  a  tenth 

1  New  York  Journal,  August  2,  1898. 


"  In  Co-operative  Land  "  85 

of  a  chance  to  win,  they  have  in  labour  copartnership 
succeeded  in  organising  the  most  civilised  system  of  pro- 
duction the  modern  world  of  industry  knows — one  far  in 
advance  of  anything  done  by  that  superior  power,  the 
capitalist. 

It  gave  a  temporary  stimulus  to  the  American 
movement. 

Your  book  is  performing  a  mighty  work  [wrote  James 
Rhodes,  American  Secretary  of  the  International  Co-opera- 
tive Alliance].  From  many  places  I  have  received  letters 
asking  for  information  how  to  put  farms,  workshops,  facto- 
ries, etc.,  on  to  a  profit-sharing  basis,  all  the  result  of  reading 
your  book. 

Farmers'  institutes  and  granges  over  the  country  were 
impressed  by  the  story  of  the  Irish  co-operators.  Sir 
Horace  Plunkett  wrote: 

I  find  that  our  Irish  economic  awakening  is  beginning  to 
have  an  interest  for  Irish  Americans.  I  see  your  hand  in 
this,  as  I  don't  think  any  othqr  American  has  observed  us. 

Lloyd  sowed  the  ideas  as  widely  as  possible,  sending 
his  book,  for  instance,  to  William  H.  Baldwin  of  the 
Long  Island  Railroad  and  to  Stuyvesant  Fish  of  the 
Illinois  Central,  commending  their  special  considera- 
tion of  the  chapter  on  "Workmen  Directors";  to  the 
Illinois  State  Reformatory,  and  to  the  Canadian 
Department  of  Agriculture;  to  Booker  T.  Washington, 
suggesting  that  he  might  by  efforts  similar  to  Plunkett 's 
make  his  school  self-supporting;  to  the  municipal 
specialist  Albert  Shaw,  advising  him  to  read  the 
chapter  on  Kettering:  "The  world  will  never  look 
the  same  to  you  again."  He  also  lectured  over  the 


86  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

country  on  "News  from  Co-operative  Land"  and 
"From  Hireling  to  Partner,"  bringing  to  the  dis- 
couraged people  the  marvellous  facts  and  figures  of  this 
movement  which  he  called  the  great  economic  event 
of  the  1 9th  century,  greater  than  the  trusts,  achieved 
by  working  men  whose  aim  was  to  leave  the  world  a 
little  better  than  they  found  it. 

Money  alone  could  not  bring  these  men  to  do  such  work. 
A  vision  of  brotherhood  inspired  them;  the  same  vision  as 
that  which  accompanied  the  advent  of  the  Christian  era. 

I  remember  his  consulting  me  in  London  as  to 
whether  it  was  his  duty  to  wear  only  co-operative 
clothing:  his  conscience  seemed  to  say  to  him  that  he 
should,  and  yet,  truth  to  tell,  their  fit  was  not  equal 
to  the  high-water  mark  of  his  Regent  Street  tailor. 
I  do  not  know  how  his  conscience  decided,  but  to 
deliver  these  lectures  he  always  wore  a  complete  set 
of  co-operative  clothes,  and  usually  prefaced  his  talk  by 
declaring  himself  the  best  dressed  man  in  the  assembly 
because,  he  said,  there  were  no  stains  of  human  sac- 
rifice on  his  garments,  and  while  they  might  not  fit 
perfectly,  they  were  indeed  "fit  clothes. " 

He  hoped  that  his  book  might  lead  to  invitations  to 
Vivian  and  Blandford  to  lecture  in  America,  and  made 
a  special  effort  through  Gompers  to  secure  for  Vivian 
an  invitation  to  address  the  annual  convention  of  the 
American  Federation  of  Labor,  offering  to  contribute 
towards  the  expense,  but  in  vain. 

Gompers  is  a  good  fellow  [he  wrote  to  Vivian],  but  he 
shows  the  timidity  of  the  elected  person,  which  is  quite  as 
much  one  of  the  characteristics  of  the  class  as  "the  endless 
audacity"  which  Whitman  attributes  to  them. 


"  In  Co-operative  Land  "  87 

I  have  been  very  much  disappointed  [he  wrote  later,  in 
1899]  by  the  complete  failure  of  my  attempts  here  to  get 
any  of  the  trade-unions  or  organisations  of  labour  to  take  up 
the  co-operative  or  copartnership  movement.  Gompers 
seems  positively  unable  to  believe  that  the  co-operative 
movement  is  not  an  insidious  enemy  to  the  trade-union 
movement,  but  he  will  come  around  in  time,  and  we  shall 
have  you  here,  but  not  as  soon  as  I  had  hoped. 

Indeed  his  efforts  met  with  opposition,  both  among 
trade-unionists  and  socialists.  He  saw  that  the  aim 
of  the  co-operators  and  socialists  was  the  same;  their 
methods  differed. 

Co-operatives  believe  in  home  rule,  local  self-government, 
private  initiative,  and  industrial  democracy.  Socialists 
believe  in  centralisation  and  political  initiative.  What 
right  has  either  to  call  the  other  heretic?  Both  are  right. 
There  will  be  some  industries  nationalisable — railroads. 
Some  must  remain  municipal — gas.  Some  corporational 
and  co-operative — boot  and  shoe.1 

This  view  he  maintained  through  the  years  and 
tried  when  he  could  to  influence  socialists  and  trade- 
unionists  towards  co-operation  and  co-operatives 
toward  advanced  political  action.  This  was  an  unusual 
position,  but  one  characteristic  of  him. 

Though  he  [Lloyd]  is  himself  a  socialist  [wrote  Holyoake2], 
he  is  a  friend  of  self-helping  industry.  I  am  glad  to  say 
that  he  is  about  to  visit  Europe  again.  He  has  a  great 
idea  that  united  action  is  possible  between  socialists  and 
co-operators.  He  may  depend  upon  it  that  every  reasonable 
conception  of  unity  will  be  considered.  .  .  . 

1  Note-book,  1897. 

'Labour  Copartnership,  February,  1901. 


88  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

Mr.  Lloyd  is  the  first  socialist  writer  .  .  .  who  showed 
this  practical  sympathy  with  co-operation.1 

He  did  not  therefore  offer  his  picture  of  labour 
copartnership  as  a  complete  solution,  but  "pending 
the  political  regeneration  of  the  whole  world  at  once, " 
he  said,  "it  is  one  of  which  no  intelligent  man  of  affairs 
can  afford  to  be  ignorant. "  It  is  but  a  half  truth,  the 
private  or  voluntary  side  of  the  movement  towards 
emancipation,  of  which  the  democratic  or  political  side 
is  the  other  half;  but  the  world  needs  half  truths,  he 
said,  to  make  up  its  whole  truth.  His  philosophy  did 
not  rest  wholly  on  one  side  or  the  other,  but  recognised 
their  interdependence;  now  the  strongest  accent  of  the 
needs  of  the  times  seemed  to  be  placed  on  one,  now 
on  the  other: 

I  heard  a  great  deal  from  co-operators  against  the  social- 
ists, and  a  great  deal  from  the  socialists  against  the  co- 
operators,  but  to  me  it  seemed  quite  possible  that  the 
philosophic  historian  of  the  twenty-first  century,  looking 
backward,  will  see  that  they  were  both  divisions  of  the 
same  crusade.  Both  are  moving  towards  the  adminis- 
tration of  industry  under  public  motive — the  one  privately ; 
the  other  politically.  It  is  idle  to  ask  the  people  as  a  whole 
to  democratise  industry  through  government  action  until 
there  has  been  developed  in  the  people  an  industrial  con- 
science and  the  aptitudes  of  association  which  make  it 
workable.  Governments  are  always  representative;  and  if- 
there  is  not  in  the  constituency  the  ability  and  the  ethics  of 
democratic  industry,  it  would  be  idle  to  ask  these  of  the 
government.  The  socialist  calls  for  the  ownership  and 
operation  by  the  people  of  the  means  of  industry.  The 
co-operative  movement  is  training  a  picked  body  in  the 

1  Agricultural  Economist,  August,  1903. 


"  In  Co-operative  Land  "  89 

associated  management  of  agriculture,  manufacturing,  and 
commerce — a  complete  circle  of  social  industry,  even  if  yet 
a  small  circle.  If  the  time  comes  when  the  governments  of 
the  world  are  forced  by  public  opinion  or  public  necessity 
to  undertake  the  direction  of  industry  on  a  large  scale,  that 
government,  we  may  be  sure,  will  be  successful  among 
whose  people  there  has  been  educated  just  the  skill  and 
experience  which  is  being  gotten  ready  by  the  co-operators 
and  above  all  by  labour  copartnership  in  Great  Britain. 
The  socialists  therefore,  it  seems  to  me,  ought  to  look  upon 
the  co-operators  as  their  advanced  guard,  while  the  co- 
operators  should  see  that  in  the  programme  of  the  socialists 
is  promise  of  the  universalization  of  that  which  they  are 
doing  only  in  spots. 

We  cannot  carry  political  socialism  very  much  farther 
unless  we  develop  in  the  body  of  the  people  a  co-operative 
habit.  You  cannot  make  a  co-operative  commonwealth 
out  of  non-co-operative  citizens.  Nothing  to-day  would 
be  of  greater  re-enforcement  to  the  democracy  of  Australia 
and  America  than  a  co-operative  movement,  .  .  .  under 
which  men  are  taught  to  be  brothers  in  industry. 

He  believed  that  when  the  time  came  for  progressive 
action  through  the  state,  the  co-operative  voters  would 
be  the  backbone  of  the  political  movement. 

Nor  in  reporting  this  half  truth  did  he  intend  to 
present  it  as  a  model  for  Americans  to  imitate.  As  we 
are  a  different  people  from  the  English,  our  co-operative 
growth  must  differentiate  itself.  But  he  hoped  to  en- 
courage the  co-operative  spirit,  which  alone  could  save 
us,  and  by  showing  how  one  people  attacked  their 
problem,  to  indicate  that  the  same  principle  and  energy 
would  bring  us,  by  another  road,  to  a  like  success. 

.    I  came  upon  Lloyd  one  evening  in  the  Boston  Public 


90  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

Gardens  [said  Theodore  Curtis,  a  tireless  worker  in  the 
cause  of  the  people].  I  was  puzzling  over  the  problems  that 
were  facing  us,  and  appealed  to  him  for  light.  I  always 
remember  how  he  threw  his  arm  across  my  shoulder  as  we 
walked  along  and  said:  "7  tell  you,  Curtis,  the  American 
-working  man  has  got  to  learn  to  co-operate. " 

He  wrote  to  a  correspondent  in  1898: 

I  should  be  very  glad  to  see  you  ...  in  Winnetka  to 
hear  your  plans  for  the  Workers'  Commercial  Company. 
If  you  will  .read  my  book  on  labour  copartnership,  you 
will  see  that  English  co-operation  has  got  to  its  present 
success  by  very  humble  beginnings.  Men  competent  to 
co-operate  have  been  selected  in  England  by  much  hard 
work  and  bitter  experience.  It  will  be  necessary  to  follow 
the  same  path  to  success  in  America.  Successful  co-opera- 
tion will  march  only  from  the  body  of  the  common  people 
by  the  survival  of  little  groups,  doing  little  things  in  little 
ways,  and  great  only  because  unselfish.  I  think  the 
tendency  of  the  American  mind  runs  too  much  to  believe 
that  success  can  be  organised  on  a  large  scale.  This  is 
absolutely  impossible.  Mankind  has  been  at  work  twenty- 
five  hundred  years  organising  a  republic  and  has  never  yet 
succeeded  in  organising  one  that  could  last.  Co-operation 
can  be  made  to  succeed  in  Chicago  only  by  uniting  small 
groups  of  men  engaged  in  something  that  brings  them  into 
personal  contact  daily,  so  that  they  know  each  other  and 
each  knows  what  the  other  is  doing.  I  believe  the  people 
will  be  forced  into  such  unions  very  soon  and  look  to  see 
co-operation  take  a  firm  hold  here.  But  I  am  confident  it 
can  only  come  in  the  way  I  have  indicated. 

As  the  century  drew  to  a  close,  and  the  various  co- 
operative ventures  failed,  leaving  America  lagging 
far  behind  Belgium,  England,  Italy,  he  said  that  our 
problems  were  greater.  We  were  still  under  "the  spell 


"  In  Co-operative  Land  "  91 

of  opportunity"  in  a  kind  of  exaltation  and  expecta- 
tion of  sudden  developments  of  great  fortunes,  and 
would  need  a  generation  or  two  to  sober  down.  Our 
movement  was  moreover  encountering  as  its  problem 
a  consolidation  of  industry  so  far  consummated  as  to 
make  any  initiative  of  individuals  or  groups  almost 
impossible.  He  wrote  (in  1901)  to  James  Rhodes,  who 
as  an  Englishman  was  perhaps  not  so  conscious  of  the 
differentiation  in  co-operative  form  which  would  be 
necessary  to  meet  the  American  situation : 

The  English  movement  began  manifestly  when  there  was 
no  such  thing  known  as  the  modern  method  and  the  success 
on  the  continent  is  being  won  in  an  economic  environment 
.  .  .  pristine  in  comparison  with  ours.  ...  It  is  said  to  be 
the  purpose  of  the  steel  trust  to  dismantle  its  works  at 
McKeesport.  .  .  .  The  natural  idea  for  you  or  me  as 
co-operators  would  be  that  here  was  a  chance  to  organise 
the  workers  there  into  a  co-operative  steel  works.  But 
here  appear  some  of  the  characteristic  difficulties  of  the 
American  situation.  In  the  .-first  place  the  organisation  of 
the  trust  is  so  good,  or  at  least  we  presume  it  to  be  so  good, 
that  men  with  less  capital  and  organisation  would  be  at  a 
serious  disadvantage.  It  is  I  suppose  not  to  be  doubted 
that  a  steel  works  to  compete  with  a  modern  plant  would 
have  to  have  a  capital  of  hundreds  of  thousands  of  dollars, 
and  there  is  the  question  of  patents  ensuring  a  monopoly 
which  the  trust  would  be  almost  certain  to  control  if  there 
were  any  such.  But  the  most  serious  fact  of  the  situation 
remains.  The  men  of  the  steel  trust  are  practically  the 
same  men  as  those  who  are  in  control  of  the  railroads,  and  it 
is  a  certainty  that  any  co-operative  or  other  competitor  of 
the  trust  would  find  it  impossible  to  get  transportation  at 
the  same  rates  as  the  trust.  In  fact,  judging  from  the 
experience  in  coal  and  oil  and  cattle,  it  is  a  fair  presumption 
that  they  would  often  be  unable  to  get  transportation  at  all. 


92  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

Would  you  under  these  circumstances  think  it  wise  to 
advise  the  steel  workers  to  try  co-operation?  I  am  not 
arguing  against  co-operation,  but  I  am  anxious  to  see  what 
means  of  meeting  the  difficulties  a  veteran  "co-op"  has  to 
suggest. 

He  feared  in  his  last  years  that  the  co-operative 
advance  would  halt  in  America  until  a  fundamental 
economic  readjustment  had  been  made.  But  as 
America's  task  was  more  difficult,  so  in  his  belief  would 
her  achievement  be  greater.  As  the  years  went  by, 
and  no  progress  could  be  reported,  his  faith  made  him 
patient : 

The  co-operative  movement  abroad  is  progressing  by 
leaps  and  bounds  [he  wrote  to  Rhodes] .  When  the  American 
people  will  start  and  in  what  direction  they  will  move  are 
still  mysteries  to  me,  but  that  they  will  do  both  in  their 
own  good  time  I  feel  sure. 

He  always  remained  in  touch  with  the  movement, 
national  and  international.  In  later  tours  he  made  a 
special  study  of  Belgium's  movement,  which  was 
advancing  with  both  co-operative  and  political  or 
socialist  sails  set,  wing  and  wing.  He  noted  with 
solicitude  an  increasing  commercialism,  and  wrote  to 
Holyoake  in  1902: 

I  had  looked  forward  with  anticipations  of  the  highest 
pleasure  to  meeting  you  at  the  International  Co-operative 
Congress.  But  when  I  got  the  programme  and  found  how 
emasculated  the  proceedings  were  to  be  under  the  English 
Co-operative  Wholesale  Society,  I  decided  that  it  would  not 
be  worth  my  while  to  spend  a  month  waiting.  .  .  . 

Do  you  not  sometimes  think  now  that  Judge  Hughes  and 
others  made  a  mistake  in  dropping  the  fight  in  Congress 


"  In  Co-operative  Land  "  93 

against  the  centralising  and  commercialising  influence  of 
the  English  Co-operative  Wholesale  Society?  In  my  recent 
co-operative  tour  in  Europe  I  found  the  trail  of  that  serpent 
everywhere — in  Switzerland,  Germany,  Denmark. 

How  curious  the  circular  movement  of  human  effort. 
The  wealth  created  by  the  idealism  of  Owen  is  now  strangu- 
lating the  idealism,  and  so  choking  the  sources  of  future 
wealth. 

I  would  have  stayed  and  fought  [he  wrote  to  Hiram 
Vrooman],  if  any  firing  line  had  been  presented,  and  if 
American  co-operation  had  been  sufficiently  developed  to 
give  me  standing. 

But  instead  of  losing  faith,  he  began  at  once  to  work 
over  a  new  book  on  the  movement,  in  the  hope  of 
helping  to  restore  its  ideals. 

The  path  to  the  larger  family  which  this  life  promises, 
like  the  path  to  democracy,  is  a  long  and  weary  one,  tho 
it  is  one  from  which  the  feet  of  the  people  will  never  turn 
back. 


CHAPTER  XIX 


A   DEMOCRATIC   TRAVELLER 


W 


>HEN  a  veteran  co-operator  now  suggested  that  Mr. 
Lloyd  assume  leadership,  he  answered  (1898) : 


I  did  not  write  my  book  .  .  .  with  the  idea  of  inviting 
the  responsibility  of  attempting  to  play  the  part  of  an 
American  Plunkett.  In  truth,  as  I  intimate  in  my  closing 
pages,  I  am  very  much  inclined  to  think  our  evolution  has 
possibly  gone  beyond  the  point  where  that  would  be 
opportune.  I  would  not  say  this  very  confidently,  nor 
would  I  think  it  wise  to  say  it  with  too  much  explicitness 
publicly,  because  it  is  an  unvarying  rule  with  me  not  to 
criticise  the  efforts  which  others  think  important,  nor  to 
place  the  different  panaceas  in  competition  with  each  other. 

I  produced  Labour  Copartnership  as  one  step  in  a  very 
distinct  programme  I  have  set  myself.  ...  I  want  to 
help  to  make  the  American  people  acquainted  with  the  best 
results  of  social  movements  of  emancipation  abroad. 

In  Labour  Copartnership  I  show  the  best  that  has 
been  done  by  voluntary  organisation.  In  the  book  I  am 
about  to  write  on  New  Zealand  I  shall  show  the  best  that 
has  been 'done  by  political  organisation.  After  that  I 
think  I  shall  go  to  Switzerland  to  describe  the  results  of 
what  has  been  done  there  in  the  way  of  resuming  the  rail- 
roads. ...  Of  what  may  lie  beyond,  it  would  be  pre- 
mature to  speak  now. 

This  work  absorbs  all  my  energies  and  involves  also  a 
very  considerable  pecuniary  sacrifice.  If,  therefore,  I  am 

94 


"A  Democratic  Traveller"  95 

unable  to  spend  the  time  and  the  money  which  you  as  a 
co-operator  would  like  to  see  me  give  to  the  work  in] Amer- 
ica, you  will  understand  that  it  is  not  because  I  am  indiffer- 
ent or  indolent.  I  am  doing  all  that  I  can  and  sometimes  a 
little  more. 

He  now  definitely  enrolled  himself  as  "a  democratic 
traveller. " 

I  was  much  interested  by  your  account  of  your  campaign. 
.  .  .  But  do  you  know,  my  dear  Mr.  Lock  wood,  I  have  very 
nearly  made  up  my  mind  that  a  political  remedy  for  the 
situation  of  things  in  this  country  is  beyond  our  reach.  At 
least  until  we  have  in  some  way  effected  an  economic 
readjustment.  Republican  institutions  presuppose  a  cer- 
tain sort  of  equality  among  those  who  carry  them  out.  The 
moment  you  get  a  chronic  mal-distribution  of  wealth,  you 
have,  as  the  inevitable  sequence,  a  corresponding  mal- 
distribution of  political  power.  The  unequal  advantage  of 
wealth  carries  with  it  unequal  advantage  in  education  and 
in  powers  of  initiative  and  in  social  influence.  Once  allow 
a  very  rich  class  to  develop  in  any  country,  and  as  long  as 
they  remain  the  rich  they  will  rule  it  in  all  other  provinces  of 
its  life.  More  than  that,  they  are  compelled  by  the  fact 
that  they  are  rich  to  be  anti-republican.  Whether  we  can 
get  this  economic  readjustment  by  means  of  the  reforms  in 
progressive  taxation,  government  ownership,  land  restora- 
tion, co-operation,  etc.,  which  are  now  being  pushed  with 
such  success  in  New  Zealand  and  England,  I  do  not  know. 
I  think  we  are  bound  to  make  the  effort,  and  I  am  going  over 
to  New  Zealand  ...  to  make  a  study  of  Antipodal 
democracy  on  the  spot. 

In  the  closing  years  of  the  igth  century,  progressive 
thinkers  of  the  world  had  their  eyes  on  this  young 
country. 

There  [said  Lloyd]  waited  the  last  piece  of  virgin  soil  on 


96  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

earth  where  the  white  race  can  spend  its  governing  genius, 
unhampered  by  climate,  slavery,  monarchy,  vested  rights 
and  vested  ruts,  immigration,  or  the  enervating  seductions 
of  power  over  subject  races. 

For  many  years  he  had  been  following  its  achieve- 
ments through  press,  official  reports,  and  legislative 
bills.  He  now  wished  to  see  it  at  work. 

...  I  want  to  go  there  in  order  to  be  able  to  say  that  I 
have  seen  at  first  hand  done  ...  by  the  common  people, 
with  no  theoretical  socialism  impelling  them,  the  things 
which  our  leaders  here  tell  us  cannot  be  done.  These 
leaders  assure  us  that  it  is  impossible  for  the  people  to  use 
their  own  government  for  their  own  benefit  unless  they 
change  human  nature.  I  want  to  go  to  New  Zealand  and 
see  whether  the  human  nature  that  has  succeeded  there  is 
any  different  from  the  human  nature  of  the  people  of  the 
United  States;  and  if  it  is  not,  to  see  why  the  New  Zea- 
landers  have  so  far  surpassed  us. 

It  seems  to  me  that  the  field  of  theoretical  socialism  has 
been  worked  out.  The  Utopias  have  been  all  written — or, 
at  least,  all  that  we  need  now.  What  is  especially  wanted 
at  this  point  of  our  development  is  a  focusing  into  one  view 
of  all  the  different  things  that  are  being  done  of,  by.  and  for 
the  people  in  different  parts  of  the  world  and  in  different 
provinces  of  effort.  If  the  American  people  could  be 
roused  to  the  point  of  naturalising  all  the  reforms  that  have 
been  successfully  instituted  ...  in  town  government, 
national  socialism,  and  in  the  voluntary  field  of  co-operation, 
we  should  have  a  very  nearly  ideal  Utopia,  right  here  and 
now.  And  why  can  we  not  naturalise  the  best  things  that 
all  these  different  peoples  have  done  if  we  are  willing  to 
naturalise  their  average  men  and  women  as  they  come  over 
to  us? 

If  the  settlement  of  Plymouth  and  Boston  was  properly 


41 A  Democratic  Traveller  "  97 

called  New  England  [he  wrote  to  his  friend,  William 
Mather],  that  of  Australia  can  be  as  appropriately  styled 
Newest  England.  It  is  the  place  where  tendencies,  aspira- 
tions, and  talents  cramped  in  England,  and  now  even  in 
New  England,  find  room  to  leap  forward  in  new  social  and 
political  realisation.  I  am  going  to  study  this  democratic 
efflorescence  with  a  view  to  reporting  it  to  our  people  to 
help  rouse  them  from  their  pessimism  about  the  possibility 
of  progress  in  self-government. 

So,  early  in  January,  1899,  he  and  his  son  William 
left  Winnetka  and  were  soon  sailing  away  through  the 
Golden  Gate  and  over  the  waters  of  the  Pacific, — 
modern  Argonauts  seeking  the  golden  fleece  for  the 
people.  By  February  10  the  steamer  Warrimoo  had 
brought  him  to  that  beautiful  island  which  he  said 
stood  "isolated  by  destiny  to  be  an  experiment  sta- 
tion, a  laboratory  of  democracy. "  He  at  once  began 
visiting  state  departments,  meeting  administrators, 
and  talking  columns  to  interviewers,  so  that  the  pub- 
lic soon  knew  why  "this  expert  analyst  of  men  and 
methods"  had  come  to  their  shores  and  hoped  that  the 
institutions  would  not  disappoint  him.  He  was  sur- 
prised to  find  how  eager  was  the  Australasian  public 
to  know  of  American  conditions,  and  was  obliged  to 
tell  of  our  plight : 

The  closest  observers  of  the  American  situation,  however, 
feel  that  we  are  now  in  the  period  of  darkness  which  precedes 
the  brighter  day.  There  can  be  no  greater  mistake  than  to 
suppose  that  the  public  feeling  of  America  is  indifferent  to 
the  situation  of  the  working  man,  or  to  the  political  cor- 
ruption of  which  some  of  our  foreign  critics  seem  to  be  very 
fond  of  reminding  us.  On  the  contrary,  there  never  was  a 
time  when  the  public  opinion  of  America  was  in  a  condi- 
tion of  more  active  ebullition  than  now.  Everywhere  the 

VOL.  II — 7 


98  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

people  are  meeting  publicly  and  privately  to  discuss  the 
economic  and  social  conditions,  and  to  seek  a  way  out.  .  .  . 
Don't  doubt  this,  that  though  the  present  conflict  between 
the  monopolists  and  the  great  body  of  the  public  may  lead 
to  a  great  struggle — even  to  a  revolution — there  is  no 
country  in  the  world  where  the  problems  of  national  life 
are  receiving  more  careful  study,  and  where  the  outlook 
for  a  solution  on  very  broad  and  advanced  lines  is  more 
probable  than  in  the  United  States  of  America. 

As  he  had  only  three  and  a  half  months  to  gather 
material  he  moved  speedily  from  one  progressive 
institution  to  another,  not  neglecting  detours  to  catch 
nature's  inspiration  in  scenery  which  he  said  was  a 
synopsis  of  the  best  of  Norway,  Switzerland,  Italy,  and 
England,  "with  occasional  patches  of  Gehenna  in  the 
pumice  country  around  the  hot  lakes."  To  have  seen 
this  as  a  background  for  the  rarer  spectacle  of  the 
democratic  heart  of  its  people  working  through  golden 
rule  institutions  in  the  most  prosperous  country  of  the 
world,  was  an  inspiring  experience.  If  he  were  without 
ties  elsewhere,  this  was  the  land,  he  said,  where  he 
should  come  to  live  and  die.  Often  before  these  beauties, 
whether  of  nature  or  democracy,  his  son's  camera  was 
called  into  service,  now  to  catch  a  co-operative  group 
at  work,  or  a  new  tent  home  on  the  forest's  edge,  or  to 
snap  "Dad"  drinking  in  New  Zealand's  mountain  air 
and  its  visions  of  liberty  and  peace.  Full  bulletins 
were  sent  home: 

Wellington,  New  Zealand,  February  12,  1899. — We 
arrived  in  midsummer  with  a  temperature  of  fifty-five 
degrees,  so  cold  that  we  could  see  our  breath,  and  with  a 
regular  Noah's  ark  rain.  .  .  .  Mr.  Lusk's  letter  to  Sir 
Robert  Stout  was  the  first  we  presented.  It  secured  us 


Drinking  in  New  Zealand's  Mountain  Air  and  its  Visions  of  Liberty 
and  Peace. 


"A  Democratic  Traveller"  99 

entrance  to  this  very  comfortable  club  where  we  are 
quartered. 

.  .  .  The  first  thing  I  did  on  arriving  here  was  to  "throw 
down"  the  New  Zealand  government.  When  I  took  my 
cablegram  to  the  telegraph  office,  which  is  also  the  post- 
office,  they  refused  to  take  "Lloyd,  Winnetka"  as  a  proper 
message.  There  must  be,  the  official  very  superiorly  said, 
at  least  three  words.  I  stated  to  deaf  ears  that  I  had  so 
telegraphed  repeatedly  from  all  the  leading  cities  and 
summer  resorts  of  Europe,  Asia,  and  Africa.  They  made 
me  add  a  word,  "Well,"  and  pay  $1.60  for  it.  ...  When 
I  got  to  the  club  I  was  told  that  there  had  been  a  dozen 
calls  at  the  telephone  for  me.  I  went  to  it.  "We  find  you 
are  right  about  being  able  to  cable  the  address  alone;  do 
you  wish  the  third  word  dropped? "  I  certainly  did.  A  few 
minutes  afterwards  I  was  called  out  from  lunch  to  receive 
an  ambassador  from  the  government  who  tremblingly  and 
humbly  handed  me  back  my  money  with  an  abject  apology 
for  having  given  me  so  much  trouble.  I  patted  the  govern- 
ment on  the  head,  and  told  it  to  go  home  and  never  do  so 
any  more  and  all  would  be  forgiven  and  forgotten.  That 
almost  paid  me  for  coming  to  New  Zealand ;  think  of  such  a 
thing  with  the  Western  Union  Telegraph  Company. 

To-day  has  been  very  busy,  but  uneventful;  and  began 
with  an  interview.  .  .  .  Then  a  ...  talk  with  the  Minister 
of  Education.  The  rest  of  the  day  I  gave  to  the  Minister  of 
Railways  and  am  to  go  with  him  to-day  to  visit  the  shops 
where  the  government  builds  its  locomotives.  The  principle 
on  which  the  government  of  New  Zealand  runs  its  railroads 
is  that  as  rapidly  as  the  profits  of  operation  increase  above 
three  per  cent.,  the  rate  they  pay  for  borrowed  money  to 
build  them  with,  rates  to  the  people  shall  be  reduced.  .  .  . 

Wellington,  Feb.  17. — I  have  got  all  through  my  work 
here  at  the  departments,  and  secured  innumerable  docu- 
ments, and  many  interesting  points  of  view  which  I  could 
never  have  secured  except  by  coming.  .  .  . 


ioo  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

Feb.  21. — Christchurch. — It  seems  very  curious,  almost 
inconsiderate,  to  be  going  about  in  the  midst  of  roses  and 
ripening  fruits  while  you  are  shivering  in  ...  blizzards. 
.  .  .  We  have  travelled  one  hundred  seventy-six  miles  to- 
day ...  to  examine  some  of  the  village  settlements.  One 
of  the  government  officials  has  been  delegated  to  go  about 
with  me,  and  the  railroad  department  has  put  a  "bird-cage 
car"  on  the  train  for  us.  ...  "The  gentlemen  of  America " 
are  everywhere  received  with  great  curiosity  and  great 
warmth.  We  have  been  "put  up"  at  both  the  leading 
clubs  here.  To-morrow  we  go  to  Cheviot  where  the 
government  took  possession  of  Ready  Money  Robinson's 
40,000  acres  at  the  value  he  had  put  on  it  for  taxation.  .  .  . 

This  attempt  of  mine  to  digest  all  the  departments  of  a 
national  government  in  "twenty  minutes  for  refresh- 
ments" is  a  good  deal  of  a  strain.  ...  I  have  been  inter- 
viewing labour  leaders, — ministers  of  departments,  country 
squires.  ...  I  have  never  worked  so  hard,  I  believe,  as  in 
the  ten  days  since  I  arrived.  .  .  . 

Kurow,  March  6. — One  of  our  pleasant  experiences 
yesterday  was  visiting  the  estate  of  a  great  landlord  who 
said,  speaking  of  the  size  of  his  farm  in  an  offhand  way, 
that  "It  ran  fifteen  miles  back  from  the  house."  .  .  . 

Kurioi,  April  15. — We  are  at  last  out  of  the  cooking-stove 
country,  where  hot  water  and  steam  come  boiling  and  blow- 
ing out  of  almost  every  hillside  and  valley.  But  we  are 
really  not  quite  out,  for  all  day  long  to-day  we  have  been  in 
sight  of  a  volcano  which  was  smoking,  and  which  every  now 
and  then  pours  out  a  cloud  of  ashes.  As  this  is  only  a 
short  distance  away  from  another  mountain  which  a  few 
years  ago  without  a  word  of  warning  and  without  ever 
having  been  known  to  have  had  an  eruption  before,  blew 
off  a  large  part  of  its  top,  covered  hundreds  of  square  miles 
with  ashes,  buried  villages,  and  killed  a  great  many  people, 
we  have  travelled  with  a  becoming  sense  of  the  insecurity 


am/an- 


"A  Democratic  Traveller"  101 

of  earthly  affairs.  And  last  night  we  slept  at  Tokaanu, 
which  means  "floating  earth,"  where  you  cannot  dig  three 
feet  without  getting  into  hot  water,  and  where  they  are 
shaken  by  earthquakes  as  regularly  as  by  chills  and  fever  in 
"Eden. "  We  went  to  bed  in  faint  hopes  of  being  killed  in 
our  beds  by  some  delightfully  novel  experience,  but  waked 
up  disappointedly  alive.  We  barely  escaped  another  sen- 
sation. There  were  heavy  rains  the  day  before  and  our 
driver  told  us  that  if  we  had  been  a  day  earlier  we  could  not 
have  got  across  the  river.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  stage 
before  us  had  been  unable  to  ford  the  swollen  river,  and  had 
had  to  camp  all  night  at  the  river's  edge,  with  no  house 
within  ten  miles.  Bridges  are  an  almost  unknown  luxury. 
We  have  crossed  scores  of  rivers,  but  almost  always  have 
had  to  ford  them.  The  Waikato  was  too  swift  and  deep  for 
that,  so  we  were  ferried  across  thus — the  horses  were  taken 
out  of  the  coach,  driven  into  the  water  and  made  to  swim 
across — they  were  "ferried"  on  the  same  principle  as  that 
on  which  the  Irishman  worked  his  passage  on  the  canals — 
by  leading  the  mule.  Then  the  coach  was  run  into  the 
river  at  a  shallow  place.  A  Maori  ran  his  big  canoe  up 
under  it,  so  that  when  he  pulled  out,  the  coach  was  astraddle 
of  the  canoe  with  the  wheels  in  the  water.  Then  two  of 
them  paddled  a  quarter  of  a  mile  up  above  the  landing 
place  and  shot  across,  the  downward  current  being  so  strong 
that  we  just  had  time  to  get  across  by  the  time  the  current 
swept  us  down  the  quarter  mile.  .  .  . 

On  the  Whanganui,  April  17. — Yesterday,  we  finished 
our  course  of  N.  Z.  coaching  and  arrived  at  Pipiriki.  ...  I 
have  done  about  one  thousand  and  fifty  miles  ...  of  coach- 
ing. ...  I  have  at  last  repaired  all  the  weight  I  lost  on  the 
Warrimoo,  and  if  the  scales  at  Pareto  be  believed,  three  Ibs. 
more,  as  the  scalemaster  here  yesterday  checked  me  off  as 
one  hundred  and  fifty-two  Ibs.  But  those  are  the  scales  by 
which  he  sells;  perhaps  he  sold  me. 

I  am  writing  this  in  a  canoe  on  the  Whanganui  above  P. 


io2  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

.  .  .  We  are  out  for  a  two  days'  trip,  with  four  Maoris.  We 
are  to  camp  out  to-night  near  a  Maori  village.  We  have  to 
force  our  way  up  over  twenty-three  rapids.  No  pen — not 
even  Ruskin's — could  describe  the  beauty  of  the  rock- 
bound,  moss- trimmed,  fern-clad,  glen-led  stream  up  which 
we  are  going.  The  Maoris  are  grunting,  chanting,  whistling 
old  Maori  music,  while  the  parson  bird  and  the  pigeon 
answer  from  the  shore. 

Our  track  is  between  two  almost  unbroken  ferneries  and 
rockeries  often  hundreds  of  feet  high,  luxuriant  to  the  top 
with  semi-tropical  evergreen  foliage.  At  every  turn  we 
hear  the  spatter  or  the  roar  of  waterfalls,  great  or  little,  and 
dells,  clefts,  and  gorges  green  with  ferns  and  mosses  and 
"bush, "  blue  with  sky,  white  and  crystal  with  falling  water, 
come  down  to  the  river  in  every  direction.  The  sunshine 
of  a  cloudless  day  gilds  everything,  except  the  glossy  leaves 
of  the  Tutti  thickets,  which  it  turns  to  gleaming  silver,  too 
bright  for  the  eyes.  When  we  escape  from  a  rapid,  and 
pass  into  a  lake-like  reach  where  in  the  still  water  both 
banks  are  reflected  with  all  their  greys,  greens,  and  yellows, 
to  the  last  leaf,  trickle,  and  rock,  and  we  seem  to  be  lifted 
up  like  birds,  and  to  be  moving  in  the  air  with  as  much  of 
the  gorge  below  us  as  above,  we  are  beauty-drunk.  One 
of  the  quaint  features  is  the  appearance  in  the  wild  greenery 
of  Lombardy  poplars  and  weeping  willows  planted  by  the 
early  missionaries.  The  Maoris  say:  "The  missionaries 
taught  us  to  lift  our  eyes  in  prayer,  and  while  we  prayed, 
they  stole  the  ground  from  under  our  feet."  Here,  as  at 
Honolulu,  some  of  the  very  richest  people  are  the  de- 
scendants of  the  missionaries,  and  land  is  usually  their 
principal  possession. 

Thus  with  every  facility  at  command,  he  learned 
the  point  of  view,  not  of  one  party  or  class,  but  of  all, 
conferred  with  parliamentarians,  with  scientists,  work- 
men settlers,  took  tea  with  the  wives  of  statesmen, 
visited  "baron"  landowners  and  roustabouts.  His 


"A  Democratic  Traveller"  103 

fame  as  an  expert  observer  and  student  had  preceded 
him.  They  knew  him  as  one  whose  all-absorbing 
purpose  was  to  work  for  human  progress. 

He  had  not  been  in  New  Zealand  many  days,  even 
hours,  before  he  realised  that  he  had  not  come  in  vain. 
Like  the  rest  of  the  world  in  1899,  he  found  it  "in  the 
flooding  tide  of  a  new  prosperity."  Nevertheless 
even  here  in  an  uncitified  country  where  the  main 
occupation  was  agriculture,  and  the  farmers  rather  than 
the  workmen  were  the  radicals,  he  found  labour  troubles 
of  the  same  kind  as  those  of  the  United  States. '  Work- 
men were  demanding  their  share  of  the  new  prosperity. 
He  had  known  of  course  from  the  press  that  the  New 
Zealanders  were  grappling  with  the  problem  in  a  novel 
way.  So  almost  his  first  request  was  to  see  a  strike. 
As  an  American  citizen,  that  word  suggested  armed 
Pinkertons,  street  riots,  starving  mothers  and  babies. 
Doubtless  knowing  this,  his  friend  smiled  at  his  request. 

We  were  driven  to  a  charming  spot  in  Christchurch, 
bordering  on  "The  Domain,"  or  public  park,  on  the  banks 
of  the  Avon  where  English  willows  turn  their  hoar  leaves 
to  a  stream  as  beautiful  as  its  namesake.  We  approached 
an  interesting  Gothic  building  which  did  not  look  like  a 
factory  or  trades-union  hall,  and  passed  into  a  long,  open 
room,  with  vaulted  ceilings,  galleries,  stained  glass  windows. 

On  either  side  of  a  long  table  sat  representatives  of 
employers  and  employees,  with  a  white-wigged  Judge 
between  them,  all  busy  in  controversy.  This  was  a 
New  Zealand  strike.  The  sight  and  the  statements 
which  his  friend  whispered  to  him  as  they  stood  watch- 
ing gave  him  an  instant  decision  that  this  new  social 
invention  of  compulsory  arbitration  had  the  first  claim 
on  his  curiosity.  The  Act  provides  for  a  Board  of 

1  See  Appendix. 


104  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

Conciliation,  one  for  every  district  court,  and  a  Board 
of  Arbitration  for  the  whole  state.  Both  are  so  con- 
stituted as  to  contain  representatives  nominated  in  one 
case  or  elected  in  the  other  by  associations  of  employers 
and  employees,  and  a  third  person  who  in  the  case  of  the 
Arbitration  Court  is  a  judge  of  the  Supreme  Court. 
In  case  of  a  dispute  between  labour  and  capital,  the 
Act  has  a  three-fold  compulsory  feature,  namely  arbi- 
tration, if  either  party  wishes  it,  publicity  of  the  case, 
and  obedience  to  the  award. 

Then  Mr.  Lloyd  began  to  use  his  probe  and  lens  as  an 
expert  social  scientist  to  test  this  invention.  He  ob- 
served its  workings,  and  talked  it  over  with  every 
type  of  man,  with  the  political  economist  from  Oxford 
University,  the  New  Zealand  labour  advocate,  with 
large  employers,  with  senators.  Its  author,  William 
Pember  Reeves,  proved  to  be  a  man  whose  heart  and 
genius  captivated  him,  and  he  and  Lloyd  became 
devoted  friends.  The  more  he  studied  the  Act  the  more 
enthusiastic  he  became,  and  at  the  end  of  his  tour, 
after  studying  all  the  achievements  of  this  wonderful 
country,  "so  many,"  he  said,  "that  the  traveller  hardly 
knows  which  way  to  turn,"  he  pronounced  this  not 
merely  a  novelty  in  a  subordinate  field  of  legislation, 
but  a  new  growth  of  the  living  organism  of  society. 
He  saw  that  it  was  equalising  the  weak  and  the  strong, 
both  among  working  men  and  capitalists,  giving  the 
victory,  as  near  as  possible,  to  the  right,  and  not  to  the 
merely  strong;  that  it  was  blazing  the  trail  for  inter- 
national arbitration,  and  that  "commonwealth  of 
nations"  of  which  he  was  dreaming.  To  turn  from  its 
peace  to  some  of  the  strike  legislation  of  other  lands,  was, 
he  said,  "like  passing  from  the  mountain  air  of  New  Zeal- 
and into  the  torture  chamber  of  some  mediaeval  castle. " 


"A  Democratic  Traveller"  105 

He  was  fortunate  in  seeing  the  initial  operation  of 
the  old-age  pension  system,  the  first  in  the  world,  and 
the  most  popular  among  New  Zealanders  of  all  their 
reforms.  "There  is  nowhere  a  kinder  people,"  he 
said,  "kind  to  the  unfortunate  and  the  stranger;  and 
the  popularity  of  this  helping  hand  to  the  forlorn  aged 
is  a  part  of  this  chivalry."  He  discussed  it  with  its 
originator,  Premier  Richard  J.  Seddon,  whom  he  de- 
scribed as  "a  new  man  fresh  from  the  multitudes,  with 
a  head  that  feels  and  a  heart  that  thinks." 

Next  to  Lincoln,  Mr.  Seddon  is  the  most  remarkable  man 
in  politics  I  have  yet  met.1  He  has  immense  physical 
power,  and  a  mind  that  works  like  a  dynamo.  I  never  saw 
his  equal  in  anticipating  the  points  you  were  going  to  make, 
or  one  who  had  his  material  better  in  hand. 

Lloyd  sat  beside  the  magistrate  in  Wellington  when 
he  examined  the  applicants  for  pensions,  a  pathetic 
group,  "the  flotsam  and  jetsam  of  the  work-a-day  life 
of  New  Zealand."  He  was  pleased  to  insert  in  his  notes, 
as  he  listened,  some  legislative  details  which  had  re- 
sulted from  the  kindly  influence  of  women's  suffrage. 
Later  at  Christchurch,  he  saw  the  first  payment  under 
the  new  law,  and  watched  the  men  and  women  as  they 
appeared  at  the  post-office  savings  bank,  going  in  with 
anxious  looks  and  coming  out  happy.  At  no  time  was 
his  interest  more  deeply  aroused  than  by  the  Public 
Trustee,  then  John  C.  Martin,  with  whom  he  spent 
hours  listening  to  one  instance  after  another  when  he 
was  able  to  preside  like  a  kind  fate  over  the  destinies 
entrusted  to  him.  To  Lloyd  this  office  seemed  the  most 

1  An  interview  in  Lyttelton  Times,  February  21,  1899.  As  Lloyd 
never  met  Lincoln,  it  is  likely  that  he  used  some  other  expression. 


io6  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

human  aspect  in  which  any  society  of  our  day  presents 
itself  to  its  individual  citizens. 

He  approached  the  railroad  situation  with  the  keen 
interest  of  one  who  had  all  his  manhood  been  studying 
the  question,  and  who  had  left  a  land  agog  with  a 
discussion  of  private  and  public  ownership.  He  went 
pretty  well  over  the  lines,  observing  their  practical 
workings,  and  it  is  no  sentimental  exaggeration  to  say 
that  here,  where,  as  he  said,  the  hand  of  the  public 
was  on  the  throttle,  he  found  love  at  work.  Where  the 
people  were  the  railway  king  no  favouritism  was  shown. 
There  was  no  discrimination  to  the  largest  shipper,  no 
rebates.  "A  lift"  was  given  to  each  class  according  to 
its  need.  Children  were  carried  free  to  school,  lime  or 
breeding  cattle  brought  free  to  the  farmers,  and  dona- 
tions to  charitable  institutions.  As  he  stood  on  the 
platform  at  Wellington,  a  train  came  in  bringing 
country  children  to  see  the  city  sights;  returning  trains 
took  city  children  out  to  the  foot  of  the  mountains, 
"to  look  at  waterfalls  and  fern  trees,"  he  said,  "and 
hear  the  tui  bird  ring  its  silver  bell. " 

But  he  especially  tried  to  gather  any  light  as  to  how 
Australasia  answers  the  hard  questions  which  private 
ownership  puts  to  public  ownership.  His  conclusion 
was  that  even  in  this  unfavourable  ground  for  testing 
the  public  side,  the  balance  was  in  its  favour.  One 
result,  he  claimed,  was  incontrovertible,  the  public 
highways  had  become  the  public  business;  while  the 
practical  workings  were  delegated  to  officials,  every 
detail  of  general  policy  was  an  expression  of  the  people's 
will.  He  found  that  the  democracy,  running  its  roads 
for  service,  not  for  profit,  produced  beneficent  results 
inconceivable  to  private  ownership,  as  for  instance, 
when  it  voluntarily  reduced  freight  rates  and  fares,  or 


11 A  Democratic  Traveller"  107 

on  building  a  new  road,  insured  to  the  public  the  rise 
in  value  of  bordering  land.  In  methods  of  road-building 
he  found  it  pre-eminent.  This  was  done  by  men  working 
co-operatively  and  without  the  aid  of  the  sweating 
contractor,  by  unemployed  and  casuals  who  were 
given  "the  mercy  of  employment, "  and  changed  as  they 
worked  into  permanent  settlers.  Old  were  given  work 
as  well  as  young,  delicate  as  well  as  robust.  "We 
know, "  he  said,  "that  we  could  look  through  the  whole 
world  of  private  highways  for  only  one  instance  like 
this,  and  look  in  vain. " 

With  special  detail  he  surveyed  the  comparative 
experiences  with  railroads  under  non-political  com- 
missioners and  under  the  political  system  as  a  depart- 
ment of  the  government.  There  was  no  telling,  he 
said,  how  soon  this  might  become  a  practical  question 
even  in  America.  In  general  the  attitude  of  the  people 
was  such  that  it  was  safe  to  say  that  the  highways 
of  Australasia  would  never  become  private  property. 
When  English  capitalists  offered  to  build  important 
connecting  lines,  although  the  government  approved, 
the  people  by  referendum  vote  said  no.  Their  far- 
sighted  democracy  was  no  accident.  They  had  pro- 
fited, he  said,  by  witnessing  the  helplessness  of  their 
British  and  American  cousins  before  the  owners  of  the 
highways. 

Strange  to  say,  in  that  wide  country  so  recently 
held  only  in  nature's  tenure,  there  had  grown  up  a 
system  of  land  legislation  and  land  monopoly  more 
pernicious  than  that  of  England.  Vast  estates,  many 
held  by  absentee  corporations  who  would  neither 
sell  nor  cultivate,  had  become  the  greatest  curse  of  the 
nation.  Fearlessly  had  the  premier  and  the  ministers 
of  state  set  to  work  to  prevent  the  mass  of  the  people 


io8  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

who  own  no  land  from  becoming  serfs.  Lloyd  went 
about  the  country  to  see  how  they  had  done  this  by 
the  use  of  "that  ancient,  constitutional,  and  inalienable 
weapon — the  tax, "  and  to  see  in  operation  the  two  laws, 
one  to  prevent  future  monopoly  in  public  lands,  the 
other  to  break  up  by  purchase,  compulsory  if  need  be, 
existing  private  monopoly.  He  visited  Cheviot,  the 
first  of  the  estates  which  the  state  had  resumed  and 
cut  into  "land  for  the  people."  As  he  traversed  its 
roads,  one  vying  in  beauty  with  the  rarest  of  the 
Riviera,  and  talked  with  the  settlers  in  its  new  villages, 
with  the  farmers  on  the  roadside  as  he  had  done  with 
the  administrative  officials,  he  found  the  facts  of  its 
success  as  lovely  as  its  prospect  of  mountain  and 
meadow. 

Feb.  24. — These  last  few  days  have  been  given  to  our 
visit  to  Cheviot.  It  has  been  a  brilliant  success.  The 
weather  has  been  as  fine  September  weather  as  heart  could 
wish;  the  scenery  of  the  air-swept,  treeless,  tumultuous 
sort  that  the  foothills  of  the  Rockies  give  in  Colorado  and 
Wyoming.  The  spectacle  of  the  thriving  farms,  buttressed 
with  golden  stacks  of  grain  as  big  as  the  barns  or  bigger, 
and  the  prosperous  towns,  where  only  five  years  ago,  there 
was  nothing  but  a  manor-house  and  vast  expanses  of  sheep 
land — a  population  of  twelve  hundred,  where  there  were  less 
than  fifty — was  most  inspiring. 

With  characteristic  balance  he  tried  hard  not  to  be 
"carried  away,"  not  to  be  too  glad.  "I  took  spe- 
cial pains,"  he  said,  "to  find  out  what  causes  of  dis- 
satisfaction, if  any,  there  might  be,  and  what  the 
shortcomings  were,  for  the  temptation  to  become  en- 
thusiastic was  almost  overpowering."  But  there  was 
no  denying  the  gain  of  14%  in  the  productivity  of 


Mr.  Lloyd  from  a  photograph  taken  in  Wellington,  New  Zealand,  1899,  by 
Wrigglesworth  and  Binns 


"A  Democratic  Traveller"  109 

the  land,  nor  the  increased  quantities  of  wool,  of  wheat, 
of  lambs,  and  more  important  than  the  lambs,  he  said, 
were  "the  kiddies,"  who  will  live  and  if  need  be  die 
for  New  Zealand. 

He  went  to  Waimate  to  witness  the  balloting  for  a 
newly  resumed  estate.  He  found  the  houses  "filled 
to  the  eaves"  with  applicants.  Although  the  examina- 
tions are  usually  private,  the  authorities  courteously 
allowed  him  to  be  present.  When  the  time  for  balloting 
came  and  the  question  arose  as  to  who  should  be 
"scrutineer"  to  read  and  announce  the  ballots,  several 
voices  called,  "Let  the  people  nominate. "  By  acclama- 
tion "the  democratic  traveller"  from  America  was 
chosen  and  thus  had  the  happiness  of  helping  in  the 
distribution  of  one  of  the  finest  estates  resumed  by  the 
democracy.  The  state  remains  the  landlord,  giving 
the  land  under  a  new  legislative  feature,  the  "lease  in 
perpetuity."  He  filled  his  note-book  with  the  novel 
and  kindly  methods  of  this  rare  landlord,  who  when  he 
forecloses  a  mortgage  restores  to  the  tenant  the  value 
of  his  improvements,  who  gives  land  to  the  moneyless 
without  any  cash  payment,  who  when  he  finds  himself 
making  a  profit  reduces  the  rents,  who  also  safe- 
guards certain  rights  of  the  dispossessed  private  owners, 
so  that  the  new  system  goes  into  effect  with  no  social 
bitterness.  Thus  he  saw  New  Zealand  in  the  act  of 
driving  out  the  land  barons,  creating  a  happy,  pro- 
sperous yeomanry,  and  moving  slowly  to  its  ultimate 
goal, — the  nationalisation  of  every  foot  of  land.  They 
are  well  on  their  way,  he  said,  to  a  realisation  of  what 
no  people  have  yet  had — an  inalienable  fatherland. 
"Speculation  in  land  is  dead,  and  that  is  the  beginning 
of  the  end. " 

Although  the  only  real  novelties  he  discovered  were 


no  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

the  Compulsory  Arbitration  Act,  and  the  Minimum 
Wage  Law  of  Victoria,  he  joyously  recorded  myriad 
ways  by  which  the  Australasian  peoples  were  saving 
themselves  through  the  state—  "Government  and/ 
Company  Unlimited"  he  called  it;  how  they  electea 
to  train  themselves  scientifically  in  all  manner  of  in- 
dustries, and  established  state  schools  of  viticulture, 
horticulture,  dairy  culture,  sent  over  the  lands  the  best 
mining  and  soil  analysis  experts  in  the  world,  built 
co-operative  dairies,  sugar  mills,  cold-storage  ware- 
houses, slaughter-houses,  in  some  colonies  carrying 
the  coal,  crushing  the  ore,  irrigating  the  land.  When  he 
left,  their  success  was  widening  into  a  more  radical 
programme,  ownership  of  the  coal  mines. 

His  survey  of  not  quite  three  months  in  New  Zealand 
and  one  in  Australia  being  over,  his  public  programme 
was  for  the  time  subordinated  to  the  private.  He  had 
contemplated  visiting  Japan,  a  country  with  which  he 
believed  that  the  world  would  have  much  to  reckon 
in  the  near  future,  stopping  also  at  Java  for  a  glimpse 
of  Holland's  successful  treatment  of  the  native  races, 
a  story  little  known  by  Americans  and  one  soon  to  be 
greatly  needed.  But  a  cable  announcing  the  date  of 
his  second  son's  Class  Day  made  the  travellers  hastily 
turn  homeward.  Many  parting  messages  revealed  the 
place  he  had  won  in  the  warm  hearts  of  this  kindly 
race. 

I  feel  more  drawn  toward  your  great  nation  by  having 
had  the  honour  of  meeting  and  knowing  you  than  would 
have  been  otherwise  possible  [was  the  parting  message  of 
Edward  Tregear,  Secretary  of  Labour].  New  Zealand  will 
feel  that  it  has  some  ownership  now  in  you  and  your  work 
and  "telepathy  without  wires"  will  be  set  up  between 
Wellington  and  Winnetka.  .  .  . 


"A  Democratic  Traveller"  in 

From  the  Victorian  Socialists'  League  the  secretary 
wrote : 

My  comrades  wave  their  hands  to  you — in  friendship 
and  in  greetings — may  you  be  spared  long  for  the  service  of 
humanity. 

The  travellers  now  had  an  exciting  race  to  reach 
Harvard  by  Class  Day.  They  barely  caught  the  Warri- 
moo  which  cleared  on  May  26.  Fortune  favoured,  for 
at  Vancouver  they  struck  a  red-letter  day  in  Cana- 
dian railway  history,  when  the  new  swift  service  be- 
tween Montreal  and  Vancouver  was  being  inaugurated 
by  two  four-day  expresses,  one  flying  east  and  the 
other  west.  There  was  some  public  interest  in  this 
Phineas  Fogg  globe  race.  At  Winnipeg  a  telegram 
from  the  New  York  World  caught  the  train  asking  him 
for  a  two- thousand-word  story  to  be  given  the  Montreal 
correspondent.  In  spite  of  a  delay  from  the  discovery 
of  a  boulder  on  the  track  in  a  tunnel,  "train  No.  I " 
drew  up  in  Montreal  on  time  to  the  minute.  Then 
came  the  dash  for  Boston  and  the  travellers  arrived 
two  hours  before  the  Class  Day  exercises,  having  come 
10,000  miles  in  twenty-nine  days.  Mr.  Lloyd  began 
at  once  to  talk  out  his  experiences  in  the  columns 
of  Boston  and  Chicago  papers,  and  to  spread  the 
ideas  in  lectures  and  magazines.  He  brought  a 
greeting  from  East  to  West.  "The  Australasians, "  he 
said,  "are  intensely  fond  of  America,  and  I  carry  their 
messages  of  love,  as  well  as  their  experiences  in  govern- 
ment to  the  American  people." 

As  a  strike  was  in  progress  in  St.  Louis,  his  expert 
information  on  the  Compulsory  Arbitration  Act  was 
at  once  sought  by  leading  citizens  there,  and  thus 
the  new  importation  of  facts  by  the  democratic 


ii2  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

traveller  found  a  ready  demand.  His  first  task  was 
to  get  before  the  public  an  account  of  the  law  in 
a  little  book,  A  Country  Without  Strikes.  It  was 
quickly  done  in  the  journalistic  style,  being  in  the 
publisher's  hands  seven  months  after  he  had  landed 
in  New  Zealand.  Small  as  it  was,  it  represents  a  great 
achievement  on  his  part,  for  it  was  written  in  a  time  of 
deep  depression.  To  have  turned  from  this  sight  of 
New  Zealand's  statesmen  saving  the  people's  liberties 
to  his  helplessness  before  the  great  problems  of  his 
own  country  must  have  had  its  share  in  disheartening 
him.  "If  I  wrote  that  book  under  the  conditions  I 
did,"  he  said  afterward,  "/  can  do  anything.  No  man 
ever  wrote  under  greater  difficulties."  Although  it  no- 
where glows  with  his  usual  charm  or  strength  of  style, 
it  had  the  merit  of  being  the  first  adequate  account 
of  the  complicated  provisions  of  the  Act  and  its 
workings. 

There  could  have  been  no  more  timely  work.  The 
conflicts  in  the^labour  world  were  growing  more  intense. 
Many  cities,  European  and  American,  were  suffering 
from  strikes.  Anxious  statesmen  and  workers  for  pro- 
gress felt  it  a  boon  to  have  put  in  their  hands  this  com- 
pact volume  whose  very  title  was  welcome.  To  learn 
of  "a  country  without  strikes,"  which  was  not  "Al- 
truria"  but  "Actualia, "  sent  again  a  leaven  of 
hope  through  society.  Men  rose  from  the  reading 
with  a  feeling  of  elation.  Reviews  filled  the  papers  and 
Lloyd  wrote  and  lectured,  not  caring  how  often  he 
repeated  so  long  as  he  sent  the  idea  vibrating  through 
every  group  of  minds  he  encountered.  Among  the 
grateful  letters  was  the  following,  the  last  which  he 
was  to  receive  from  his  beloved  friend,  John  P. 
Altgeld: 


" A  Democratic  Traveller"  113 

ALTGELD,  DARROW,  &  THOMPSON,  UNITY  BUILDING. 

June  19,   1901. 
DEAR  MR.  LLOYD: 

Many  thanks  for  your  kind  words  about  my  little  book. 
I  cannot  tell  you  how  sweet  they  are  to  me.  It  is  one 
of  my  children  that  the  world  is  not  frowning  on. 

You  will  see  from  the  heading  of  this  letter  that  I  have 
gone  to  work  and  am  trying  to  make  an  honest  (?)  living. 
Although  I  have  a  deep  conviction  that  a  reformer  ought 
not  to  have  to  work. 

I  have  not  yet  congratulated  you  on  the  tremendous 
success  of  your  little  book  on  New  Zealand.  Nearly  every 
paper  in  this  country  quoted  from  it.  I  know  of  nothing 
that  has  done  so  much  to  educate  our  people  as  that  little 
book.  Even  if  the  sales  have  not  been  large  it  has  done  its 
work  and  you  should  be  very  happy  about  it.  Remember 
me  to  Mrs.  Lloyd  and  accept  my  benediction. 

JOHN  P.  ALTGELD.1 

A  widespread  discussion  of  the  relative  merits  of 
compulsory  and  voluntary  arbitration  followed  its 
publication.  The  idea  of  compulsion  proved  a  stumb- 
ling block  to  the  ordinary  conception  of  individual 
liberty,  but  Mr.  Lloyd  said  that  this  was  the  kind  of 
compulsion  which  gave  liberty.  He  considered  the 
term  compulsory  extremely  infelicitous.  It  should 
have  been  named  state  arbitration,  for  it  meant  only 
arbitration  by  law  and  was  no  more  compulsory  than 
all  the  functions  of  government  rendered  necessary 
by  an  intractable  minority. 

If  we  always  say  "compulsory  arbitration"  we  ought 
also  always  to  say  "compulsory  taxation"  or  "compulsory 
sanitation."  .  .  .  Compulsory  arbitration  adopted  by  the 
majority  after  public  discussion  among  a  self-governing 
people  is  voluntary  arbitration. 

1  Lloyd's  letters  to  Altgeld  have  not  been  found. 

VOL.  II — 8 


H4  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

In  view  of  its  success  in  New  Zealand  and  the  failure 
of  voluntary  arbitration  everywhere,  he  declared  that 
the  compulsory  feature  alone  vitalised  it.  He  did  not 
have  the  support  of  the  trade-unions  in  this  any  more 
than  in  Labour  Copartnership.  They  feared  the  courts. 
To  this  objection  his  answer  was  in  part : 

Courts  are  poor  things  at  best,  but  they  average  infinitely 
higher  in  justice  than  war,  especially  private  war.  .  .  . 
Labour  troubles  are  passing  under  the  control  of  the  judges, 
and  will  do  so  more  and  more.  "Capitalist  judges!"  the 
working  men  say.  Far  better  for  the  striker  that  the 
"capitalist  judge"  sit  in  such  an  arbitration  court  than  in  a 
star  chamber.  .  .  .  The  working  men  of  America  reject 
the  procedure  of  Australasia  only  to  submit  to  something 
far  worse.  They  have  a  compulsory  arbitration  much  more 
odious.  The  defeat  of  strikes  by  injunction  often  entailing 
imprisonment  has  become  their  frequent  experience.  The 
Australasian  working  men  think  a  judge — even  if  a  "capi- 
talist tool" — who  sits  in  an  arbitration  court  where  by  law 
they  are  given  recognition,  hearing,  facts,  publicity,  state- 
ment, and  protection,  all  in  full,  is  better  than  a  judge  who 
sits  in  a  star  chamber  dispensing  government  by  injunction, 
with  reserves  of  Gatling  guns  and  generals  on  horseback 
just  outside  his  door. l 

Indeed  his  sympathies  were  democratically  with  the 
body  of  the  people. 

There  could  be  no  better  credential  for  the  idea  of  arbitra- 
tion courts  [he  wrote]  than  the  fact  that  the  leaders  on  both 
sides  are  vehemently,  passionately,  opposed  to  it.  Enemies 
in  all  else,  union  labour  and  union  capital  are  friends  in  their 
fright  at  the  suggestion  that  the  public  shall  compel  them 
to  adopt  rules  of  order  instead  of  a  military  code.  .  .  . 

1  New  York  Journal,  September  24,  1901. 


"A  Democratic  Traveller"  115 

They  are  class  leaders  of  class  movements  seeking  class 
advantage;  the  public  is  their  quarry. 

He  saw  that  the  true  secret  of  this  discussion  about 
compulsion  was  that  the  third  party,  the  people,  did 
not  want  arbitration.  In  a  dejected  moment,  he  said 
that  he  sometimes  thought  the  Americans  preferred 
to  fight,  that  they  were  warlike  and  fighters  to  their 
finger- tips,  and  were  just  entering  their  Roman  period. 

The  American  people  do  not  yet  want  arbitration  by 
courts.  They  have  not  yet  thought  enough  or  suffered 
enough.  They  are  sure  to  suffer  enough  to  make  them 
think  enough. 

Samuel  Gompers  opposed  the  idea  in  the  press.  To 
John  Mitchell,  President  of  the  United  Mine  Workers 
of  America,  Lloyd  sent  literature  and  wrote : 

The  main  objection  to  compulsory  arbitration  in  America 
is  only  a  practical  one,  and  that  is  that  we  have  not  yet  had 
sufficient  experience  with  arbitration  to  have  become  an 
arbitrating  people.  When  the  Americans  have  become 
indoctrinated  with  the  ideas  of  arbitration,  and  when  they 
then  find  (as  they  surely  will)  that  every  once  in  a  while 
some  intractable  minority  of  employers  or  workmen  defeat 
an  arbitration  which  the  whole  country  knows  to  be  of  vital 
importance,  there  will  be  very  little  hesitation  in  taking  the 
next  step  and  making  arbitration  compulsory.  The  true 
statement  of  my  position  is  arbitration  voluntarily,  if 
possible;  compulsory,  if  necessary.  Compulsory  arbitra- 
tion, even  in  New  Zealand,  is  only  for  the  minority  and  for 
the  exceptional  labour  trouble. 

In  advocating  this  measure,  he  again  showed  his 
balanced  temperament.  Whereas  he  believed  in  the 


n6  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

most   radical   reconstruction   of   society,   he   yet   saw 
clearly  the  value  of  this  next  step. 

It  does  not  pacify  the  greatest  war  of  all,  the  war  which 
underlies  the  labour  wars,  the  war  between  the  House  of  the 
Million  and  the  House  of  the  Millionaire,  the  age-long  war 
between  the  rich  and  the  poor,  in  which  emancipation  of 
slaves  and  serfs  and  the  enfranchisements  of  peoples  were 
episodes,  and  which  may  be  now  nearing  its  final  crisis.  But 
tho  a  conservative  measure,  and  operating  only  within 
the  boundaries  of  a  world  of  social  injustice,  it  is  a  vast 
improvement  on  the  manners  and  methods  of  war,  and 
would  sweeten  humanity  for  a  sweeter  solution  of  the 
greater  question. 

Although,  like  labour  copartnership,  it  was  con- 
tinually doomed  to  death  by  doctrinaires,  he  believed 
that  the  idea  was  growing.  He  himself  headed  a 
movement  which  drafted  for  Massachusetts  a  law 
calling  for  "an  industrial  court."  In  New  York, 
Kansas,  Canada,  similar  bills  were  considered,  a  plank 
drafted  on  the  New  Zealand  method,  minus  the  com- 
pulsory element,  was  adopted  by  the  next  National 
Democratic  Convention,  while  the  Industrial  Com- 
mission sitting  in  Washington,  D.  C.,  minutely  dis- 
cussed the  New  Zealand  plan,  and  thereby  filled  the 
press  with  quotations  from  A  Country  Without  Strikes. 

Two  months  after  his  book  appeared,  a  conciliation 
and  arbitration  conference  was  called  in  Chicago  by 
the  National  Civic  Federation.  Compulsory  arbitration 
was  touched  upon  in  the  chairman's  opening  address, 
referred  to  by  nearly  every  speaker,  and  deprecated 
by  representatives  of  both  capital  and  labour.  One 
session  was  devoted  to  its  workings  in  New  Zealand. 
The  Chicago  Tribune1  in  reporting  this  said: 

*  Chicago  Tribune,  December  18,  1900. 


"A  Democratic  Traveller"  117 

It  is  a  significant  fact,  and  one  probably  unknown  to  most 
of  those  attending  this  conference,  that  the  one  citizen  of 
this  country  who  has  recently  been  to  New  Zealand,  and 
after  a  careful  study  of  the  situation  there,  has  written  the 
story  of  the  operation  of  compulsory  arbitration  in  that 
island,  was  not  invited  to  this  conference.  .  .  .  His  book 
.  .  .  has  at  least  shown  remarkable  results  in  the  one 
country  where  that  plan  has  been  tried,  and  while  it  con- 
tains no  recommendation  that  the  same  plan  be  tried  in  this 
country,  his  contribution  to  a  discussion  on  the  subject 
should  naturally  be  of  peculiar  importance. 

In  a  few  months  the  Labour  Department  at  Welling- 
ton was  inundated  with  letters  of  enquiry  from  all 
parts  of  the  world.  "It  is  almost  impossible  to  .  .  . 
send  pages  of  writing  .  .  ."  the  department  wrote 
to  Lloyd,  "and  we  do  not  care  to  praise  up  our  own 
acts.  Your  book  has  filled  the  gap."  It  also  had  its 
influence  in  Australia,  as  shown  by  the  words  of  Hon. 
B.  R.  Wise,  Attorney-General  for  New  South  Wales: 

Mr.  Lloyd's  exposition  of  the  workings  and  aims  of  the 
New  Zealand  Industrial  and  Arbitration  Act  was  widely 
read  in  this  state ;  and  his  influence  contributed  in  no  small 
degree  to  the  passage  of  our  industrial  arbitration  act. 

The  whole  story  of  his  New  Zealand  tour  he  wrote 
in  Newest  England.  In  this  account,  where  statis- 
tics were  graced  with  tender  descriptions  of  nature  and 
human  nature,  and  his  early  fires  of  style  now  and  then 
flashed  into  view,  every  page  was  full  of  his  deep  passion 
for  human  betterment  and  bore  indirect  testimony  that 
the  beloved  American  people  were  ever  in  his  mind.  He 
knew  that  they  were  depressed,  worried  with  daily 
cares,  but  needed  to  know.  So  he  made  the  story  not 
technical  nor  ponderous,  but  popular,  clear,  pictorial, 


u8  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

even  gay.  Its  numbers  may  seem  small,  he  said,  to 
those  whose  imaginations  have  become  imperial,  but 
the  breadth  of  the  spirit  revealed  must  enlarge  the 
democratic  horizon  of  every  thinker  who  reads  of  their 
achievements.  He  did  not  fill  the  pages  with  blasting 
contrasts,  although  his  aim  was  not  so  much  to  tell  us 
about  New  Zealand,  as  to  help  save  America.  He 
merely  said :  Look  on  this  picture  of  an  oppressed  people. 
See  by  what  a  Titanic  effort  they  saved  themselves, 
and  are  in  wisdom  rebuilding  their  society,  with  no 
weapons  save  those  of  the  state.  They  are  not  an 
extraordinary  people.  They  have  not  been  obliged, 
except  in  one  or  two  cases,  even  to  create  new  legisla- 
tive inventions.  They  have  merely  searched  their 
history  for  precedents,  and  have  carried  these  out  in  a 
whole-hearted  manner. 

When  all  the  world  was  discussing  the  various  pro- 
jects for  preserving  free  government,  this  story  scattered 
broadcast  the  impetus  of  the  most  forward  democracy 
of  the  age  and  set  people  dreaming,  hoping.  A  minor 
result  was  that  at  the  next  apportionment  of  homestead 
claims,  the  United  States  Department  of  the  Interior 
arranged  for  its  being  done  by  lot. 

I  believe  that  New  Zealand  has  a  very  important  message 
for  the  rest  of  us  [he  wrote  to  a  friend].  I  consider  her  as 
having  an  especial  right  to  be  considered  the  political  brain 
of  the  modern  world  and  I  hope  we  shall  find  it  is  also  a 
contemporaneous  posterity.  ...  I  regard  the  work  done 
...  as  a  far  more  instructive  episode  than  the  French 
Revolution,  and  one  which  accomplished  a  great  deal  more 
original  and  valuable  work;  and,  consequently,  the  one 
which  is  more  than  any  other  episode  worth  the  careful 
study  of  the  American  people.  New  Zealand  has  pointed 
out  the  way  for  peaceful  revolution,  if  there  is  any  such  way. 


"A  Democratic  Traveller"  119 

As  this  depends  on  the  gentlemen  on  the  other  side,  I 
confess  that  my  hopes  are  not  strong. 

A  student  of  Lloyd's  philosophy  in  so  far  as  he  lived 
to  express  it,  must  see  that  his  publishing  of  these 
facts  was  due  to  his  simple  recognition  that  the  future, 
however  ideal,  must  grow  out  of  the  present.  He  wished 
to  reveal  not  so  much  a  programme  as  to  exhibit  a  peo- 
ple's power  to  deliver  itself.  He  hoped  to  help  awaken 
an  impulse  to  grapple  with  our  tyranny  before  it  had 
consummated.  He  aimed  to  give  peaceful  reconstruc- 
tive measures  a  fair  showing.  He  was  reporting  progress, 
not  making  final  solutions.  These  are  experiments  on 
trial,  he  said  again  and  again  to  his  critics. 

People  constantly  misunderstand  my  purpose  [he  wrote 
to  Edward  Everett  Hale].  They  seem  to  think  I  want  the 
United  States  to  imitate  New  Zealand;  on  the  contrary,  I 
want  our  country  to  give  New  Zealand  something  to  imitate. 

Of  course,  this  is  "laboratory"  work  [he  wrote  to  Mr. 
Salter].  But  are  not  the  most  important  scientific  and 
industrial  achievements  of  our  times  the  result  of  things 
first  proved  feasible  in  the  laboratory?  "With  one  accord 
they  all  began  to  make  excuse. "  If  people  would  only  use 
half  the  grey  matter  for  reasons  for  doing  things  which  they 
now  consume  in  devising  reasons  for  doing  nothing,  ours 
would  be  a  much  farther  evolved  world  than  it  is. 

He  followed  up  his  book  by  articles  and  lectures, 
and  indeed  became  so  identified  with  the  subject  that 
Frank  Parsons  wrote  to  him:  "My  dear  Henry  D. 
Zealand."  His  friends  among  ministers  and  officials 
in  New  Zealand  were  encouraged  by  his  endorsement. 

His  enthusiasm  for  our  social  experiments  contributed 
much  to  our  determination  to  give  them  a  fair  trial  [writes 


i2o  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

Attorney-General  Findlay].  He  silenced  the  critics  of  our 
Arbitration  and  Conciliation  Act  who  pointed  to  the  short- 
comings of  that  measure,  by  vivid  pictures  of  the  effect  of 
strikes  in  your  great  democracy. 

His  contact  here  with  our  late  Premier,  with  the  present 
Chief  Justice,  and  with  most  of  our  Judges,  did  much  to 
hearten  them  in  a  determined  perseverance  to  make  the 
best  of  our  novel  social  experience.  His  life  labours,  the 
good  words  he  said  here  and  said  in  his  books,  for  us  and 
for  our  humanitarian  laws,  have  made  his  name  to-day  in 
New  Zealand  a  name  admired  and  loved. 

Of  Newest  England  William  Pember  Reeves  said : 

His  book  has  for  New  Zealanders,  as  for  all  students  of 
human  progress,  a  permanent  value.  It  gives  the  fresh 
impressions  of  one  who  was  on  the  spot  in  the  first  years, 
and  who,  as  an  intelligent,  unprejudiced  outsider,  with  no 
party  bias,  gives  a  picture  of  the  e very-day  life  as  he  saw  it. 
I  have  written  the  purely  historical  side  of  New  Zealand 
democracy,  but  Lloyd  was  the  only  one  to  give  pictorial 
accounts  and  concrete  evidence  of  the  actual  every-day 
working  of  these  experiments,  such,  for  instance,  as  the 
cutting  up  of  the  great  estate  which  he  witnessed,  and  the 
first  group  of  old  people  drawing  their  pensions.  These 
early  years  and  the  scenes  they  brought  will  never  recur, 
and  for  such  actual  fresh  impressions  the  student  of  the 
future,  but  for  this  book,  would  have  to  spend  years  search- 
ing through  old  newspaper  files.  This  gives  the  book  a 
permanent  place  in  New  Zealand  chronicles. 

I  have  no  hesitation  in  saying  [wrote  John  Rigg,  member 
of  Parliament]  that  there  is  accurate  information  in  it 
regarding  New  Zealand  of  which  nine  tenths  of  the  inhabi- 
tants are  ignorant. 

"This  lion  democracy  of  the  Antipodes,"  as  Lloyd 
called  it,  had  a  valiant  defender  while  he  lived.  After  the 


"A  Democratic  Traveller"  121 

publication  of  his  books  the  press  of  Australia,  Europe, 
and  America  abounded  in  stories  of  New  Zealand's 
impending  ruin.  People  were  told  that  its  industries 
were  paralysed,  its  democratic  experiments  failures, 
its  financial  credit  impaired.  At  these  moments,  he 
appeared  equipped  with  the  latest  figures  and  thwarted 
the  "conscious  and  unconscious  conspiracy"  by  which 
he  said  that  the  men  who  looked  with  terror  upon  New 
Zealand  legislation  were  watching  for  an  opportunity 
to  knife  its  policy.  He  disproved  the  report  that 
Premier  Seddon  had  admitted  the  Compulsory  Arbi- 
tration law  to  be  a  failure  by  publishing  Seddon 's 
own  words.  He  answered  the  pessimistic  book  of  T. 
Grattan  Grey,  which  closely  followed  his. 

Sedulous  efforts  are  being  made  [he  wrote  to  Sir  Joseph 
Ward]  ...  to  create  the  belief  among  our  people  that  New 
Zealand  is  paying  the  penalty  for  its  democratic  policy. 
...  I  am  doing  what  I  can  to  combat  these  forces.  .  .  . 
It  is  a  great  pleasure,  for  I  love  the  New  Zealanders  and 
New  Zealand  institutions. 

He  saw  clearly  that  there  were  coming  storms  through 
which  her  ship  of  state  would  have  to  be  piloted.  It  was 
safe  to  predict,  he  said,  that  in  a  few  years  the  same 
struggle  with  monopolistic  combinations  would  be  tak- 
ing place  as  in  the  United  States,  although  in  a  much 
less  acute  form.  But  in  combating  them  New  Zealand 
would  have  an  enormous  advantage  through  her 
government  ownership  of  railways,  and  the  absence  of 
vast  fortunes,  so  that  the  preventing  or  nationalising 
of  trusts  could  be  more  easily  effected. 

.  .  .  There  is  a  black  cloud  in  the  sky  of  New  Zealand's 
near  future,  but  it  is  England's,  not  New  Zealand's.  As  a 


122  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

result  of  the  investment,  hardly  "reproductive,"  in  the 
South  African  war  .  .  .  Great  Britain  is  rushing  straight, 
head  on,  to  a  financial  crisis,  the  like  of  which  she  has  never 
known,  one  of  the  first  effects  of  which  will  be  the  transfer 
for  ever  of  the  financial  supremacy  of  the  world  from 
London  to  New  York.  New  Zealand's  money  matters, 
public  and  private,  are  almost  inextricably  bound  up  with 
those  of  Great  Britain,  and  this  panic  may  shake  her  to 
the  very  foundations.  But  New  Zealand  was  able,  by  the 
democratisation  of  credit,  to  bid  defiance  to  the  panic  of 
1893,  and  was  the  only  country  that  did  so.  If  her  states- 
men are  equally  ready  and  democratic  they  may  be  able  to 
keep  the  next  panic — under  their  laws  against  "undesirable 
immigrants" — from  landing  on  their  shores.1 

He  wrote  to  Premier  Seddon  sending  him  a  copy  of 
Owen's  pamphlet,  The  Guernsey  Market  House  Plan  of 
Payments. 

95  MT.  VERNON  ST.,  BOSTON,  Nov.  18,  1901. 
...  I  have  noticed  with  great  interest  the  frequent 
references  which  you  have  made  in  your  speeches  in  Parlia- 
ment and  elsewhere  to  the  desirability  of  in  some  way 
freeing  New  Zealand  from  the  incubus  which  private 
capitalistic  banking  places  upon  its  credit,  public  and 
private.  This  is  a  subject  which  is  likely  to  become  of  the 
first  importance  the  moment  the  next  pinch  of  hard  times  is 
felt  in  your  "fortunate  isle."  This  pinch  I  am  inclined  to 
think  may  come  soon  and  without  much  warning.  The 
financial  equilibrium  of  England  I  believe  to  be  very 
seriously  endangered  by  its  investments  in  gunpowder  in 
South  Africa,  which  are  locking  up  an  appalling  amount  of 
its  floating  capital.  The  German  crisis  has  cut  off  a  large 
part  of  our  American  market  abroad  for  copper.  The  Eng- 
lish crisis  will  have  a  similar  effect  upon  the  New  Zealand 
market  for  meat,  dairy  products,  and  its  other  exportable 

1  New  York  Evening  Post,  December  9,  1901. 


"A  Democratic  Traveller"  123 

produce.  The  New  Zealand  government  will  then  face  the 
dilemma  of  having  to  find  instantly  some  adequate  means  of 
employing  labour  profitably,  so  as  to  maintain  the  prosperity 
of  the  people,  or  of  seeing  the  conservative  party  come  into 
power  on  a  wave  of  discontent.  Whatever  may  be  their 
professions,  the  inevitable  result  of  their  administration 
will  be  destruction  of  the  liberal  regime  established  by  your 
wise  leadership  during  the  past  ten  years.  Possibly  the 
Guernsey  plan  may  help  suggest  a  policy  for  this  emergency. 
With  the  invaluable  natural  wealth  still  virgin  in  New 
Zealand  and  with  its  industrial  and  capable  population, 
New  Zealand  ought  to  be  able  to  defy  any  financial  reverse 
and  its  resultant  political  reverse,  if  some  machinery  of 
credit  can  be  found  which  can  put  the  labour  and  the  natural 
resources  together  in  the  work  of  the  production  of  wealth. 

My  fears  for  New  Zealand  are  on  quite  a  different  basis 
from  yours  [he  wrote  to  his  father].  I  am  afraid  she  may 
fail  because  she  has  not  gone  far  enough.  Her  financial 
and  currency  system  leaves  her  still  tied  tight  to  the  purse- 
strings  of  Lombard  Street.  Her  land  and  labour  reforms 
ought  to  be  made  ten  times  as  extensive.  What  has  been 
done  is  merely  an  object-lesson  showing  how  land  and  work 
can  be  given.  What  is  wanted,  now,  is  that  they  actually 
be  given  to  all.  Their  taxation  of  the  larger  incomes  and 
estates  is  too  timid.  Most  of  all,  they  need  more  popu- 
lation. The  more  men  the  more  wealth  under  the  proper 
political  economy. 

His  faith  in  the  energy  and  integrity  of  the  race  was 
such  that  he  believed  the  country  had  still  a  great 
future.  Although  little  sectarian  socialism  was  talked, 
that  was,  he  thought,  the  fixed  purpose  toward  which 
it  was  steadily  moving.  By  its  negative  action  in 
interfering  with  wealth  concentration,  and  its  positive 
creation  of  new  democratic  wealth,  it  had  made  itself  a 
country,  he  said,  for  those  Americans  to  study  who 


I24 

wanted  to  know  how  their  own  sins  could  be  forgiven. 
He  never  broke  the  circuit  between  himself  and  this 
wonderful  land,  nor  lost  the  friendly  touch  of  its  fine 
statesmen.  Their  official  literature,  their  warm  personal 
letters  continued  to  reach  him,  and  he  reciprocated  by 
keeping  them  abreast  of  his  own  work.  Almost  the 
last  message  he  had  was  from  one  of  them,  Edward 
Tregear,  which  arrived  about  three  weeks  before  he  died : 

Goodby,  dear  Friend,  may  you  have  health  and  strength 
to  carry  on  the  heavy  fight. 


CHAPTER  XX 


'OUR  OLD  ENEMY" 


MR.  LLOYD  could  never  stray  far  from  the  cen- 
tral problem — monopoly.  In  these  years  he 
continually  returned  to  the  attack  upon  what  he  called 
"our  old  enemy,  the  oil  trust,"  as  upon  all  the  other 
tyrannies.  They  were  pushing  their  conquest  with 
impudent  persistence,  he  said,  as  if  they  thought  the 
people  were  fools.  They  no  longer  feared  to  crack  the 
whip.  The  first  question  of  the  reporters  on  his  reach- 
ing London  in  1897  was,  How  is  the  oil  trust  standing? 
"Stronger  than  ever,"  he  said.  "Its  stock  has  gone 
up  in  the  last  six  months  $60,000,000,  and  nearly  all  of 
that  in  ninety  days.  Why?  No  one  knows.  They  are 
extending  their  boundaries,  and  they  have  the  world  in 
their  hands.  There  never  has  been  anything  like  it. " 
He  wrote  to  Mr.  Moritz  Pinner1: 

I  wonder  if  you  saw  the  Independent  of  March  4,  1897, 
with  the  Symposium  on  Trusts?  .  .  .  I  commend  especially 
to  your  attention  the  article  by  the  lawyer  of  the  oil  trust, 
entitled  "War  on  Wealth. "  You  see  the  attitude  taken  by 
these  men  is  precisely  similar  to  that  of  the  champions  of 
slavery  before  the  war.  Any  criticism  of  their  methods  and 
any  attempt  to  introduce  any  kind  of  reform  is  at  once  met 
by  the  cry  of  "war  on  society,"  "war  on  property.".  .  . 

1  See  Appendix. 

125 


126  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

You  are  of  course  watching  the  newspapers,  and  have  not 
failed  to  observe  how  in  the  proposed  tariff  legislation,  as  in 
all  other  directions,  the  power  of  the  trusts  is  steadily 
gaining  ground.  The  people  of  America  are  in  full  retreat 
before  them  like  the  Greeks  before  the  Turks,  and  just  as 
certainly  they  will  be  massacred. 

"Only  adversity,"  he  had  often  said,  "will  teach 
the  American  people, — and  they  are  going  to  have 
plenty  of  it;  .  .  .  they  will  stir  when  they  begin  to 
suffer."  "That  day  has  now  come,"  he  wrote  in  1897 
in  a  German  paper.1  The  "economic  pain,"  formerly 
confined  to  farmers  and  working  men,  had  spread  to  the 
upper  middle  class,  who  had  seen  valuable  stocks  turned 
to  dry  leaves  in  their  strong  boxes.  All  history,  he 
said,  is  full  of  the  rapidity  with  which  a  class  that  has 
attained  to  comfort  and  independence  acts  when  it 
feels  that  its  liberties  and  its  prosperity  are  in  danger. 
"This  class  is  to-day  in  undisguised  revolt. "  A  greater 
change  in  public  opinion  on  social  questions  had  never 
been  seen  perhaps  in  the  world's  history.  But  it  was 
largely  unexpressed  and  unorganised.  The  people 
found  themselves  powerless.  The  trusts  by  universal 
bribery  and  large  campaign  contributions  to  both 
parties,  had  nullified  investigation,  prevented  punish- 
ment, and  ensured  the  enactment  of  favourable  laws, 
such  as  the  recent  tariff  legislation  for  the  sugar  trust, 
"the  most  impudent  of  the  trusts."  There  was  arising 
an  "almost  furious  anger,"  he  said,  which  might  have 
some  interesting  denouement  unless  prosperity  or  a 
foreign  war  intervened  to  divert  the  people.  He  saw 
signs  that  both  the  prosperity  and  the  war  were  immi- 
nent. One  day  at  this  time,  looking  down  upon  the 
bustling  London  world,  he  said  that  the  American 

1  Socialc  Praxis,  Charlottenberg,  Berlin,  June  24,  1897. 


"Our  Old  Enemy"  127 

business  kings  were  going  to  make  an  empire  beside 
which  the  British  would  be  "a  mere  fly-speck,"  "and 
they  are  going  to  begin  by  taking  Cuba. "  The  next  year 
the  explosion  of  the  American  battle-ship,  the  Maine, 
in  the  waters  of  Cuba  precipitated  the  war  with  Spain. 
He  now  viewed  with  apprehension,  tempered  by  what 
philosophy  he  could  command,  the  beginnings  of  his 
country's  imperialism.1 

When,  in  the  last  days  of  1895,  the  Venezuelan  crisis 
had  threatened  war  between  the  United  States  and 
England,  he  had  written  to  the  Chicago  Tribune2  and 
the  London  Daily  Chronicle,*  upholding  the  enforce- 
ment of  the  policy  of  the  Monroe  Doctrine,  for  he  was, 
as  he  wrote  to  Professor  Ely,  "the  extremest  kind 
of  a  Monroe  Doctrine  man. "  To  one  who  expressed 
surprise  at  this,  he  had  written: 

...  I  ...  will  confess  that  I  wrote  what  I  did  with 
great  reluctance  and  pain.  But  when  called  upon  as  I  was 
by  the  Editor  of  the  Tribune  for  my  opinion  as  a  citizen  I 
had  to  respond,  and,  responding,  I  had  to  say  what  I 
believed. 

One  who  is  dwelling  upon  visions  of  the  Co-operative 
Commonwealth,  and  who  wishes  to  proclaim  the  brother- 
hood of  man  as  the  supreme  law  of  social  life  cannot  but 
feel  shocked  and  grieved  when  he  finds  that  public  duty  as 
he  conceives  it  compels  him  to  contemplate  the  possibility 
of  war.  But  precisely  such  has  been  the  experience  in  the 
past  of  every  party  that  advocated  peace  and  brotherhood. 
The  French  Revolution,  our  War  of  Independence  (with 
which  possibly  you  do  not,  as  an  Englishman,  sympathise), 
and  the  late  Civil  War  were  all  directly  brought  about  by 
the  advocacy  of  the  principles  of  the  brotherhood  of  man. 
If  war  comes  between  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain 

1  See  Appendix.  3  December  24,  1895.  3  January  28,  1896. 


128  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

on  this  Venezuelan  business,  I  must  look  upon  it  as  an  in- 
cident in  the  same  sequence  of  events.  The  Great  Britain 
of  Lord  Salisbury,  of  India,  of  Africa,  of  Ireland,  of  the 
House  of  Lords,  and  the  English  landed  system,  encroach- 
ing upon  a  neighbouring  republic,  refusing  arbitration, 
represents  to  me,  in  this  day,  the  same  forces  as  those  which 
in  the  past  have  stood  against  liberty  and  progress.  The 
determination  of  the  American  people  to  use  their  power  to 
protect  the  other  republics  on  this  continent  seems  to  me 
the  most  respectable  manifestation  of  public  opinion  this 
generation  has  seen.  I  see  no  difference  in  principle 
between  this  action,  and  that  by  which  the  American 
Colonies  bound  themselves  together  in  1774  by  Com- 
mittees of  Correspondence  to  advise  and  help  each  other. 

I  would  extend  the  Monroe  Doctrine  to  the  defence  of 
every  Republic  as  far  as  Andorra  and  San  Marino,  and  to 
the  assistance  of  every  people  seeking  to  establish  the 
republic.  If  anything  could  save  America  from  her 
apparently  impending  Midas-like  doom  it  would  be  such  a 
mission.  But  it  is  too  much  to  hope  for. 

To  W.  T.  Stead  he  wrote  (1895) : 

...  Of  course  you  understand  the  American  position  on 
the  Venezuela  matter, — President's  message,  the  action  of 
Congress,  the  press,  public  opinion, — all  is  predicated  on 
the  refusal  of  Lord  Salisbury  to  arbitrate.  If  the  territory 
and  the  right  of  the  dispute  both  belong  to  England,  the 
people  here  will  be  perfectly  content.  All  they  have  to  say 
is :  Arbitrate.  The  thirteen  hundred  English  authors,  and 
the  Prince  of  Wales,  and  the  others  who  have  been  cabling 
their  "appreciations"  of  peace,  have  produced  but  little 
effect  because  they  have  so  conspicuously  refrained  from 
uttering  the  three  little  peace  words :  "We  will  arbitrate. " 
They  seem  to  desire  to  get  peace,  but  not  to  give  peace. 
There  could  be  no  greater  mistake  than  to  suppose  the 
American  people  have  even  the  faintest  desire  to  grasp  at 


"Our  Old  Enemy"  129 

the  privileges  pertaining  to  imperial  position.  Their  propo- 
sitions, for  instance,  as  to  the  settlement  of  this  Venezuela 
trouble,  might,  if  the  English  are  right,  result  in  your  getting 
a  great  accession  of  territory.  But  it  could  not  in  any 
event  result  in  any  such  gain  to  the  United  States.  An 
American  audience  would  not  know  what  was  meant  by 
' '  the  privileges  pertaining  to  imperial  position. ' '  No  policy 
involving  them  has  ever  been  practised  or  even  discussed  in 
American  politics.  But  that  there  shall  be  no  encroach- 
ments by  European  powers,  and  no  oppression  of  neighbour- 
ing republics,  that  simple  American  idea  our  people  have 
taken  in  with  their  mother-milk,  and  there  will  be  rude 
disillusion  for  any  who  think  the  sentiment  can  be  trifled 
with.  It  is  this  sentiment  which  gives  us  the  belief  that  we 
have  such  an  interest  in  the  Venezuelan  affair  as  to  warrant 
us  in  asking  to  be  satisfied  that  the  proceedings  of  Great 
Britain  are  based  on  right,  and  not  on  force.  For  that — 
full  satisfaction — all  that  is  necessary  is  that  we  know  the 
settlement  was  made  by  arbitration.  The  arbitration 
need  not  be  with  us.  Our  Commission  was  appointed 
solely  for  our  own  information.  But  if  it  reports  that 
prima  facie  the  case  appears  to  be  against  England,  and  if 
Salisbury  still  refuses  to  arbitrate,  we  have  to  choose 
between  surrendering  the  only  article  of  faith  and  honour 
we  have  in  our  creed  of  foreign  relations,  and  going  to  the 
defence  of  Venezuela.  The  only  misgiving  I  have  as  to  the 
outcome  is  based  on  my  conception  of  Lord  Salisbury  and 
the  kind  of  men  who  surround  him.  They  are  of  the  class 
which  has  always  made  the  great  mistakes  of  history;  they 
know  so  little  of  life  that  they  are  as  blind  to  their  own 
interests  as  to  those  of  the  people. 

To  another  he  wrote: 

...  I  do  not  anticipate  war  because  I  believe  that  this 
country  has  passed  so  thoroughly  under  Anti- American  and 
Anti-Republican  influences  that  the  virtue  to  make  sacrifices 


130  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

to  our  duty  no  longer  remains.  But  if  we  do  not  step  out  of 
our  money-making  and  comfort  to  fulfil  our  mission  to 
defend  and  extend  liberty,  it  will  be  the  most  lamentable 
moral  failure  this  country  has  made. 

He  was  therefore  now  in  1898  sympathetic  with  the 
Spanish  War  to  the  extent  of  wishing  to  free  Cuba, 
regarding  the  conflict  as  an  inevitable  one  between 
two  irreconcilable  civilisations;  but  when  our  soldiers 
began  to  be  slaughtered  through  our  own  greed  and 
mismanagement,  he  sent  hot,  indignant  letters  to  Mr. 
Bowles: 

I  found  in  New  Haven  the  other  day  that  since  the  war 
opened  a  contract  for  millions  of  black  powder  cartridges 
had  been  given  to  the  Winchester  Arms  Company.  We 
read  in  the  Republican  that  the  American  gunners  cannot 
locate  the  Spanish  on  shore  because  these  use  smokeless 
powder.  Meanwhile  our  War  Department  is  preparing  to 
guide  the  Spanish  gunners  to  the  exact  locality  of  our  boys. 
There  is  more  that  is  black  about  that  than  the  powder. 
Why  cannot  American  powder  manufacturers  supply 
smokeless  powder?  Can  we  not  buy  smokeless  powder 
abroad  if  they  cannot  do  so?  ... 

There  are  Spaniards  in  our  rear  as  well  as  in  our  front. 
Go  for  them !  .  .  .  • 

...  I  think  that  any  pretence  of  believing  in  the  honesty 
of  a  man  known  to  have  attempted  to  bribe  delegates  at  a 
national  presidential  convention  is  misplaced  ingenuous- 
ness. Such  a  man  will  engage  in  any  corruption  as  naturally 
as  a  duck  takes  to  water.  .  .  .  He  and  the  men  he  trains 
with — our  million-hunters — think  it  is  right  to  make  money 
by  any  means  that  are  successful.  Success  is  their  ethical 
standard.  For  such  a  man  to  handle  hundreds  of  millions 
honestly  is  impossible.  He  will  not  steal  it  vulgarly,  but 
he  will  steal  for  his  friends,  his  backers,  his  corporations,  by 


"Our  Old  Enemy"  131 

all  sorts  of  tricks  and  contrivances  in  contracts,  etc.  And 
it  would  be  better  for  us  if  he  did  steal  vulgarly,  for  then  he 
would  not  steal  so  much.  If  all  this  has  not  been  proved 
and  proved  up  to  the  hilt,  nothing  has  ever  been  proved,  or 
ever  will  be.  .  .  .  The  facts  of  our  situation  are  ten  times 
clearer  and  stronger  than  those  which  established  the 
Hebrew  prophets  in  business.  In  truth  it  is  no  longer  a 
question  among  well  informed  men  whether  these  facts  are 
facts,  but  whether  the  American  people  have  the  wit  to 
care.  A  people  who  would  allow  a  notorious  corruptionist 
and  traitor  (for  such  are  the  appropriate  terms  for  such  a 
vote  buyer)  to  be  put  at  the  head  of  a  government  depart- 
ment without  a  storm  of  protest,  are  either  too  rotten  to 
be  self-governing,  or  too  small  for  so  big  a  thing  as  a 
republic.  .  .  . 

Concerning  the  terrible  conditions  of  the  army 
camps,  he  wrote: 

Aug.  25,  1898. 

Is  not  this  an  ...  opportunity  for  the  Republican  to 
serve  itself  and  the  public?  The  people  are  being  hope- 
lessly bewildered  by  the  conflict  of  statement  between 
Alger's  report  of  the  idyllic  conditions  he  found  at  Montauk 
Point  .  .  .  and  the  accounts  in  the  newspapers.  .  .  . 
Could  n't  you  send  two  or  three  good  men  and  a  doctor, 
and  make  a  formal  spread  of  what  they  reported?  .  .  . 
The  people  are  now  being  invaded  in  their  most  sacred 
susceptibilities — their  love  for  their  sons  and  their  soldiers — 
by  the  same  spirit  of  insensate  and  insatiate  and  anarchistic 
greed  which  they  have  condoned  in  the  business  world  in 
the  railroads  and  trusts,  and  they  don't  like  it.  I  hope  this 
will  help  them  wake  up  in  time  to  save  something  of  their 
homes  and  liberties  and  honour.  But  if  they  are  to  do  so  the 
lesson  of  all  this  must  be  driven  home  faithfully  by  their 
public  teachers. 

He  wrote  of  camp  conditions  in  a  Labour  Day 
article  in  the  New  York  Journal: 


132  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

I  wanted  one  hundred  [copies]  [he  wrote  to  Arthur  Bris- 
bane], to  send  to  men  like  Gladden  ...  as  a  way  of  helping 
to  get  into  circulation  the  idea  that  the  scandals  .  .  .  are 
not  war,  but  capitalism.  These  are  almost  the  first  wounds 
(they  will  not  be  the  last)  the  comfortable  middle  class  (who 
rather  than  the  working  class  made  up  the  bulk  of  the 
volunteers)  have  received  in  their  physical  bodies  from 
capitalism,  and  I  think  it  of  the  utmost  importance  that 
while  the  fever  and  hemorrhage  are  still  on  they  should  have 
them  interpreted.  .  .  . 

Sept.  10,  1898. 

...  I  think  another  psychological  moment  has  now 
arrived — to  attack  McKinley  as  being  the  real  author  of  the 
evils  of  Algerism.  Unless  I  am  very  much  mistaken  we 
have  already  entered  the  upper  rapids  of  a  great  revulsion 
of  public  feeling  against  McKinley.  .  .  .  McKinley  is  a 
mere  muff,  what  our  Tom  Mackin  calls  "a  macaroni  states- 
man," a  statesman  whose  back  is  of  the  magnificent  firm- 
ness of  boiled  macaroni.  It  is  physically,  morally,  and 
politically  impossible  for  McKinley  to  do  what  is  right  in 
this  crisis.  It  is  too  near  the  election  to  overcome  the 
impression  that  has  been  made  on  the  public  mind  by  the 
mismanagement  of  the  campaign.  I  go  nowhere  that  I  do 
not  find  the  least  well  informed  people  perfectly  well  aware 
that  the  escape  of  our  army  at  Santiago  from  a  crushing 
defeat  to  a  victory  was  a  mere  fluke.  I  believe  that  within 
sixty  days  McKinley's  political  career  will  have  been  closed 
for  ever.  .  .  . 

.  .  .  You  say  McKinley  is  honest.  What  difference  does 
it  make  if  a  man  is  what  is  called  "personally  honest " — tho 
I  have  never  been  able  to  find  out  what  that  meant — if  he 
devotes  his  life  to  professional  or  official  dishonesty?  And 
what  other  description  can  be  given  of  a  man  who  as  Chair- 
man of  the  Ways  and  Means  Committee  and  as  candidate 
for  President  "fries  the  fat"  out  of  manufacturers,  corpora- 
tions, and  business  men  who  want  tariff  discriminations  and 


"Our  Old  Enemy"  133 

other  special  favours,  and  who  as  President  gives  appoint- 
ments on  the  same  principle  and  confesses  his  rascality  by 
doing  it  so  that  it  cannot  become  known  to  the  public,  as 
your  extract  from  the  Evening  Post  proves? 

Can  an  egg  have  a  dishonest  yolk  and  yet  pass  as  an 
honest  egg  because  the  shell  has  not  been  broken?  Is  the 
"personal "  honesty  of  such  a  purveyor  of  tariff  and  nomina- 
tional  privileges  as  McKinley  has  been  anything  but  a  shell 
honesty?  And  shall  we  ever  have  a  right  to  demand  official 
honesty  as  long  as  we  do  not  demand  that  men  shall  be 
honest  clear  through?  .  .  . 

When  the  war  turned  to  the  subjugation  of  the 
Filipinos,  he  said  that,  in  becoming  accomplices  in 
the  spoliation  of  other  people,  the  Americans  would 
prepare  themselves  for  the  hands  of  a  despoiler  of  their 
own  property  and  liberty.  His  far-sighted  philosophy 
alone  sustained  him. 

Our  imperialism  is  a  great  danger,  .  .  .  but  I  have 
courage  to  believe  that  right  will  triumph  and  that  both  the 
English  and  American  peoples  will  finally  succeed  in  getting 
control  of  their  governments  and  giving  the  world  an  exhi- 
bition of  true  democracy — democracy  which  can  invent  a 
way  to  maintain  paternal  relations  with  dependent  peoples 
without  the  cruel  exploitation  of  the  capitalist  and  without 
the  wrong  of  taxation  without  consent. 

.  .  .  There  will  probably  never  again  be  another  Armenia, 
never  again  will  the  great  nations  indulge  the  impossibly 
selfish  dream  of  achieving  salvation — political  or  industrial 
— for  themselves  alone.  It  will  be  a  great  prelude  to  the 
fraternalisation  of  the  races,  to  have  all  the  inferior  nations 
under  the  protectorate  of  the  greater  ones.  But  there  will 
come  with  all  this  terrible  abuses  and  faithlessnesses.  We 
shall  forget  that  within  our  own  borders  there  are  also  two 
civilisations  at  war  with  each  other,  and  the  lust  to  get 


134  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

empire  abroad  will  darken  the  counsels  of  justice  at  home. 
But  we  are  borne  on  by  great  currents  of  social  evolution, 
and  we  can  do  little  to  change  their  direction.  I  am  actually 
frightened  by  the  acceleration  already  begun  of  all  the 
corruptions,  scoundrelisms,  privileges,  tyrannies  growing  so 
rapidly  before.  But  I  believe  I  can  still  see  a  greater  sweep 
of  good  than  of  evil  in  the  Titanic  convulsions  obviously 
ahead  of  us,  and  in  that  faith  I  rest  with  what  serenity  I 
can.  It  was  an  idle  dream  that  we  could  progress  from 
perfection  to  perfection  while  the  Chinese  ossified,  and  the 
Cubans  and  Philippine  people  were  disembowelled,  and 
the  Africans  continued  to  eat  each  other,  and  I  am  content 
to  wake  from  it. 

In  his  budget  of  news  to  Major  Huntingdon,  he  wrote: 

Chicago  is  being  swept  off  its  feet  by  the  "expansion" 
craze.  Franklin  MacVeagh  read  a  paper  on  that  side  before 
the  Literary  Club  reception  this  month  that  was  really 
impassioned.  Marshall  Field  was  present  as  his  guest  and 
congratulated  him  afterwards  with  auriferous  smiles.  Our 
business  men  are  all  poll-parrotting  the  cry  that  American 
production  has  outrun  American  consumption  and  we  must 
seek  markets  for  the  surplus  abroad.  So  America  pays 
hundreds  of  millions  to  begin  the  policy  of  colonies  and 
expansion  wnich  ruined  Spain,  and  Spain  betakes  herself, 
happier  choice,  to  "domestic  problems."  So  the  dancers 
reverse  in  the  great  waltz  of  nations. 

He  wrote  to  Mr.  Bowles : 

There  is  one  point  about  the  Philippine  business  to  which  I 
see  no  allusion  but  which  I  guess  to  be  of  real  importance  in 
understanding  the  secret  springs  of  our  policy.  I  surmise 
that  the  Catholic  Church  has  had  a  potent  hand  in  pushing 
us  on  against  the  Philippines.  The  vast  power  and  wealth 
of  the  Church  there  would  go  as  they  went  in  Mexico  if  the 
Filipinos  had  their  country  to  themselves.  Is  it  true  that 


"Our  Old  Enemy"  135 

on  the  day  Manila  fell  the  Philippine  Catholics  transferred 
their  property  to  Cardinal  Gibbons?  See  if  you  don't  find 
a  Catholic  cat  in  this  meal! 

He  resolved  to  go  some  day  to  the  Philippines  and 
bring  back  to  Americans  the  true  story  of  our  dominion. 
He  was  studying  enlightened  methods  of  dealing  with 
''so-called  inferior  races,"  and  reading  William  Lee 
Rees's  life  of  Sir  George  Grey.  He  wrote  to  Franklin 
MacVeagh  commending  the  book  to  his  attention: 

I  know  that  the  book  will  profoundly  influence  your 
opinions;  and  since  your  opinions  have  the  great  influence 
that  they  have  on  our  public  opinion,  I  regard  this  as  an 
important  result  to  achieve.  Sir  George  Grey,  little  known 
as  he  is  to  the  people  of  this  country,  will  certainly  rank  in 
the  future  as  one  of  the  greatest  geniuses  of  government  that 
our  century  has  produced,  if  not  the  greatest.  It  is,  I 
believe,  no  exaggeration  to  say  that  his  administration  as 
Governor  in  Australia  and  New  Zealand  and  in  South 
Africa  will  be  felt  in  more  good  ways  and  by  more  millions 
of  people  for  centuries  to  come  than  the  work  of  any  other 
man  of  his  time. 

His  correspondence  now  shows  him  at  every  oppor- 
tunity watching  events,  informing  and  stimulating  the 
people,  venturing  as  an  unseen  power  to  influence 
leading  men,  trying  to  raise  the  temperature  of  those 
who  had  not  yet  grasped  the  astounding  situation. 
James  Creelman,  correspondent  of  the  New  York 
Journal,  who  met  him  at  this  time,  says: 

He  told  me  that  we  were  entering  the  last  struggle  against 
the  trusts  that  would  be  made  with  any  hope  of  success, 
and  urged  me  to  fight  for  the  good  cause  as  if  I  knew  that 
its  loss  would  mean  the  beginning  of  the  downfall  of  my 
country. 


136  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

The  steel  trust,  now  being  organised  as  the  Federal 
Steel  Company,  promised,  he  thought,  to  be  the  most 
dangerous  of  all.  He  spread  a  bit  of  inside  information 
in  regard  to  it  through  his  many  avenues  of  influence. 
To  Sir  William  Mather,  he  wrote  (1898) : 

I  have  just  learned  something  with  regard  to  the  proposed 
steel  trust  that  has  lately  been  organised  in  America  that 
it  seems  to  me  is  of  as  much  importance  to  you  in  England 
as  to  us  here.  It  is  a  combination  of  the  Rockefeller  and 
other  interests  in  iron-ore  and  steel  mills  and  the  related 
shipping  interest.  The  Carnegies,  ostensibly,  are  not  in 
the  trust  but  have  some  kind  of  a  working  understanding 
with  it.  The  stock  of  this  trust  has  been  listed  on  the  New 
York  Stock  Exchange  and  will  soon  become  one  of  the 
active  securities. 

By  a  curious  chance,  I  got  the  other  day  a  perfectly  trust- 
worthy report  of  some  remarks  of  Governor  with 

regard  to  this  steel  trust  which  seems  to  me  such  a  reve- 
lation of  intended  massacre  that  I  want  to  report  them  to 
you.  He  made  his  remarks  to  a  man  of  importance  in  the 
financial  world,  who  repeated  them  to  my  informant,  who 
is  an  entirely  accurate  and  credible  person — a  man  of  conse- 
quence, in  the  financial  swim,  but  who  hates  the  sort  of 

thing  he  is  compelled  to  do.  Governor said  to  this 

man,  whom  he  was  seeking  to  influence  to  recommend  the 
securities  of  the  new  trust : 

"The  preferred  stock  is  now  about  sixty-seven,  the  com- 
mon about  twenty-eight.  They  are  good  things  to  buy. 
We  shall  pay  a  dividend  on  both  stocks  and  the  common 
will  go  to  par.  We  have  the  mines  and  the  mills,  and  the 
railroads  connecting  them  and  the  shipping  facilities  and 
many  subsidiary  enterprises,  and  we  are  going  to  manu- 
facture our  steel  with  economies  that  will  make  it  cheaper 
than  it  ever  has  been  before  and  cheaper  than  it  is  anywhere 
else  in  the  world.  But  we  are  going  to  raise  the  price.  In 
the  past  we  have  had  to  make  concessions  to  our  working 


"Our  Old  Enemy"  13? 

men.  As  long  as  the  mills  were  competitors,  when  one  gave 
way  as  to  hours  or  wages  the  others  had  to  do  the  same. 
But  there  is  to  be  an  end  to  all  that  sort  of  thing  now. " 

With  one  hand  the  consumers  of  every  industry,  you  seei 
are  to  be  put  under  tribute;  for  iron  and  steel  ore  are  the 
bread  of  industry.  With  the  other  hand  the  labour  of  the 
mines,  the  mills, and  the  allied  trades  is  to  be  crushed  down. 
Machinery,  houses,  railroads,  travel,  transportation,  living, 
working,  are  all  to  be  made  scarcer  and  dearer  than  they 
have  been. 

But  there  is  even  more  than  this.  My  informant,  who  is 
exceedingly  well  posted  as  to  financial  matters,  tells  me  that 
some  of  the  most  important  mines  and  mills  that  are  going 
into  this  combination  have  never  made  any  money.  Such, 
for  instance,  are  those  of  Mr.  Rockefeller,  whose  ventures 
in  the  iron  mines  of  Michigan  and  Minnesota,  and  the 
steel  works  at  Superior  have  been  notoriously  unprofitable. 
But  my  informant  says  that  the  owners  of  these  unprofitable 
mines  and  mills  are  going  to  make  millions  out  of  them  in 
the  stock  market.  They  have  put  in  these  properties  at 
four  or  five  times  their  true  value,  and  in  the  boom  which 
they  intend  to  create  expect  to  unload  at  a  magnificent 
profit. 

Could  there  be  a  more  appalling  programme  than  this? 
The  robbery  of  the  consumer,  the  ruin  of  the  working  men, 
and  the  debauching  of  the  public  with  a  grand  stock  ex- 
change gamble,  to  end  in  collapse  and  devastation  for 
estates,  investors,  widows  and  orphans,  who  are  to  be 
"bunkoed"?  I  keep  wondering  every  day  whether  the  drift 
of  events  in  which  we  are  caught  has  not  reached  its  last 
possible  intolerability ;  but  every  day  seems  to  bring  some 
new  possibility  of  oppression,  some  new  submission  to 
wrong.  .  .  . 

By  another  curious  chance,  I  had  no  sooner  heard  this 
disclosure  of  the  plans  of  the  insiders  of  the  trust  than  I 
learned  from  another  friend,  of  his  own  personal  knowledge, 
that  in  one  afternoon  the  Governor  of  one  of  our  greatest 


138  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

States  and  one  of  our  best  known  United  States  Senators 
had  danced  attendance  upon  another  prominent  member  of 
this  trust  on  business  connected  with  it.  So  important 
was  this  man,  and  so  subordinate  to  him  were  these  officials, 
that  when  he  wanted  to  see  them,  he  made  them  come  to 
him  instead  of  going  to  them. 

This  American  steel  trust  will  use  as  part  of  its  com- 
petitive arsenal  for  overcoming  its  English  competitors  its 
power  to  break  down  the  wages  of  its  men.  It  would,  in 
other  words,  take  out  of  its  men  part  of  the  cheapness  with 
which  it  will  undersell  the  British  manufacturer.  This 
trust  will  no  doubt  sell  cheap  abroad  and  dear  at  home, 
behind  the  shelter  of  the  protective  tariff.  That  sort  of 
thing  has  been  done  before.  The  British  manufacturer 
needs  to  bestir  himself.  Just  what  he  can  do  I  will  have  to 
leave  to  him  to  find  out,  but  to  make  known  these  facts  will 
certainly  help. 

To  an  Amsterdam  friend,  he  wrote,  two  months 
later  (Dec.  27,  1898): 

...  It  will  pay  you  to  watch  the  speculation  in  New 
York  in  the  securities  of  the  Federal  Steel  Company.  The 
common  stock  which  was  put  upon  the  market  at  thirty  has 
already  advanced  to  fifty  and  by  skilful  manipulation  has 
been  made  the  most  active  stock  in  Wall  Street.  Hundreds 
of  thousands  of  shares  have  been  sold  in  single  days,  and 
this  "security"  has  taken  the  place  on  the  roulette  table 
that  until  now  has  been  held  by  sugar.  Mr.  Rockefeller  is 
a  prince  of  speculative  manipulators.  Through  the  oil 
exchanges  which  existed  in  the  oil  regions  up  to  within  a  few 
years  for  the  purpose  of  dealing  in  oil  certificates,  he  abso- 
lutely drained  every  cent  of  speculative  money  out  of  the 
inhabitants  of  those  districts.  So  brilliant  and  unscrup- 
ulous was  the  game  he  played  that  he  absolutely  killed  the 
exchanges,  and  to-day  I  believe  not  one  of  them  remains. 

He  is  evidently  the  hand  which  is  now  moving  the  pawns 


"Our  Old  Enemy"  139 

in  the  game  of  speculation  in  the  securities  of  the  steel 
trust,  and  it  will  be  as  well  worth  watching  as  the  path  of  a 
comet  in  the  sky. 

The  effect  of  the  competition  of  this  American  company 
upon  European  manufacturers  of  steel  cannot  fail  to  be 
momentous.  .  .  . 

Writing  of  this  to  many  correspondents,  he  added 
special  pleas.  To  an  American  editor,  he  wrote: 

The  middle-class  people  ought  to  be  awakened  to  see  that 
they  are  even  more  interested  than  the  working  men  because 
they  have  more  to  lose.  Such  a  regime  as  this  is  going  to 
take  all  they  have  unless  they  can  break  it,  and  break  it 
quickly. 

I  want  to  report  them  to  you  [he  wrote  to  Edward  Everett 
Hale],  that  you  may  help  to  raise  the  alarm,  if  the  people 
can  be  made  to  hear. 

Wherever  he  found  men  stirring  against  "our  old 
enemy,"  he  did  his  best  to  second  their  efforts,  con- 
vinced that  now,  while  the  people  were  still  vigorous, 
was  the  moment  to  arouse  them. 

It  is  the  hope  of  the  situation  that  in  every  stronghold 
of  our  feudalism  there  are  a  choice  few  who  hate  the  lords 
of  the  manor  and  are  only  waiting  for  the  chance  to  put 
down  the  drawbridges  and  let  the  common  people  in — and 
the  lords  out ! 

When  a  case  of  railroad  discrimination  in  favour  of 
the  oil  trust  now  came  into  the  Massachusetts  courts, 
he  wrote  to  Mr.  Bowles: 

The  persistent  continuance  of  this  policy  of  discrimination 
by  the  trust  and  the  railroads  is  so  defiant  and  threatens, 


140  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

in  what  it  means,  such  a  subversion  of  all  the  foundations  of 
law  and  order  and  true  property,  that  it  seems  to  me  abso- 
lutely terrible.  ...  If  we  are  to  allow  such  things  as  that 
to  go  on,  allow  the  competitors  who  insure  us  a  fair  market 
to  be  destroyed,  see  their  property  transferred  by  flagrant 
wrong  to  concentrated  wealth,  and  by  the  monopoly  thus 
obtained,  our  property  transferred  to  centralised  wealth; 
our  highways  made  mere  avenues  of  discrimination  and 
privilege;  and  all  the  other  institutions  of  society,  to  the 
universities  and  pulpits,  used  as  agencies  to  debauch  public 
opinion  into  sustaining  this  piratical  political  economy, — 
we  shall  have  no  country  and  no  liberty  left.  And  we  have 
already,  as  you  must  admit,  travelled  a  long  way  towards 
such  a  consummation.  It  seems  to  me  the  time  has  come  to 
do  something.  I,  for  one,  do  not  feel  content  to  sit  down 
and  see  a  treason  like  this  go  on  to  its  consummation. 

When  the  Loud  bill,  a  postal  reform  measure,  was 
pending  in  Congress  in  1898,  he  used  his  influence  to 
defeat  it  and  wrote  to  Mr.  Bowles: 

I  regard  this  matter  as  to  the  treatment  of  the  post-office 
deficits  as,  on  all  sides,  one  of  the  most  serious  now  before 
the  public.  It  is  a  matter  of  the  greatest  consequence  to 
have  the  Republican  right  with  regard  to  it,  for  it  is  almost 
the  only  paper  left  in  America  which  possesses  that  highest 
of  all  intellectual  achievements — character.  But  let  me 
point  out  briefly  two  or  three  considerations  that  bear  on 
this  question.  First,  any  one  who  proposes  in  this  stage  of 
progress  to  increase  postal  rates  on  any  class  of  matter 
takes  a  step  in  the  opposite  direction  from  all  those  that 
have  marked  the  development  of  our  postal  system, — one  of 
the  greatest  triumphs  of  civilisation.  Especially  is  this 
true  at  a  time  when  all  progressive  minds  are  working  in  the 
direction  of  further  reductions.  Henniker  Heaton,  for 
instance,  of  the  English  House  of  Commons,  is  pressing 
every  year  with  better  chances  of  success  a  plan  for  imperial 


"Our  Old  Enemy"  141 

penny-postage  and  ultimately  international  postage.  Sec- 
ond, the  presumption  that  the  plan  of  the  Loud  bill  to  in- 
crease revenues  by  increasing  rates  of  postage  is  reactionary 
becomes  a  certainty  in  view  of  the  fact  that  our  postal  de- 
ficit is  demonstrably  due  to  the  exactions,  to  use  the  mildest 
words,  of  the  railroads.  The  railroads  charge  the  gov- 
ernment one  hundred  per  cent,  a  year  for  the  use  of  the 
postal  cars;  their  lobby  prevented  the  passage  of  the  bill 
introduced  by  the  government  for  the  power  to  purchase 
the  postal  cars;  the  railroads  charge  extortionate  rates  for 
the  carriage  of  the  mails;  the  express  company  lobby  has 
prevented  the  post-office  from  undertaking  the  parcels-post 
which  the  English  post-office  carries  on  at  a  good  profit. 
.  .  .  Third,  it  seems  to  me  a  calamitous  thing  that  when 
the  people's  post-office  has  been  crippled  by  such  depre- 
dations, it  should  be  proposed  to  remedy  it  by  opening  the 
way  for  further  depredations.  Because  the  post-office  is 
robbed  by  the  railroads  of  ten  million  dollars  a  year,  the 
Loud  bill  proposes  to  raise  the  rates  on  second-class  matter, 
to  a  point  which  will  throw  that  business  also  into  the  hands 
of  the  express  companies,  and  will  result  in  a  still  further 
deficit.  Thus  because  they  have  submitted  to  one  wrong, 
the  people  are  to  be  made  the  victims  of  another;  and  the 
very  exposure  of  previous  abuses  is  taken  advantage  of  to 
make  them  the  victims  of  more. 

All  these  considerations  relate  only  to  the  welfare  of  the 
post-office  itself;  but  public  interests  concerned  are  of  the 
weightiest  character.  Not  the  least  of  these  is  the  crippling 
effect  which  the  new  rates  will  have  on  a  large  class  of 
reform  publications.  The  proper  line  of  attack  upon  the 
postal  deficit  is  to  remove  its  causes;  and  in  doing  this,  the 
whole  question  of  bringing  the  railroads  into  proper  sub- 
jection to  the  public  interests  will  come  in  as  a  matter  of 
course.  This  seems  to  me  the  economic  and  statesmanlike 
way  of  attacking  this  problem.  The  Loud  bill,  in  failing  to 
seek  to  reach  the  real  causes  of  the  postal  deficit,  it  seems  to 
me,  places  itself  under  the  grave  suspicion  of  being  prompted 


142  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

by  sinister  interests.  This  bill  in  its  general  aspects  is  of  a 
piece  with  the  Interstate  Commerce  act,  the  Anti-Trust 
act,  which  have  only  had  the  effect  of  making  the  evils 
against  which  they  were  directed  more  serious  than  before. 
Even  the  reform  struggles  of  this  unfortunate  people,  it 
seems,  are  to  have  only  the  effect  of  making  their  condition 
worse  than  it  was. 

That  the  bill  was  defeated  was  largely  due  to  the 
work  of  James  L.  Cowles, x  "who,"  as  Mr.  Lloyd  wrote  to 
Joseph  Medill,  "was  able  to  checkmate  the  scheme  by 
bringing  the  Eastern  newspapers  to  see  the  Express 
hand  in  the  Postal  Reform  glove."  That  Lloyd's 
own  efforts  were  not  fruitless  is  shown  by  Mr.  Cowles's 
generous  words: 

He  was  a  source  of  inspiration  to  me.  .  .  .  His  encour- 
aging letters  spurred  me  on  to  continue  my  great  task  and 
never  more  than  when  in  January,  1897,  he  wrote  to  me: 
"There  is  a  bill  now  pending  in  Congress  that  to  my  mind 
is  the  most  insidious  attack  ever  made  on  the  liberty  and 
independence  of  the  American  press.  I  think  you  can 
defeat  it."  That  came  to  me  as  a  clarion  call  and  I  did 
your  brother's  bidding.  One  of  the  officers  of  the  Chicago, 
Burlington  and  Quincy  Railroad,  testifying  in  the  spring  of 
1898,  said  that  the  arsenal  whence  the  weapons  were  taken 
that  defeated  Mr.  Loud's  attack  on  the  press  was  my  book, 
and  my  articles  in  the  Outlook,  the  articles  inspired  by  your 
brother's  words. 

At  the  same  time  occurred  what  he  deemed  one  of 
the  saddest  incidents  in  the  history  of  the  relations 
between  the  trusts  and  the  people — the  abandonment 
by  Toledo  of  its  suit  against  the  Standard  Oil  Com- 
pany. The  magnificent  struggle  whereby  that  city 

1  Author  of  General  Freight  and  Passenger  Post,  Railway  Mail  Pay, 
etc. 


"Our  Old  Enemy"  143 

had  kept  its  natural  gas  supply  he  had  told  triumphantly 
in  Wealth  Against  Commonwealth.  That  all  should 
be  so  soon  surrendered  was  depressing. 

If  a  city  which  had  the  nerve  and  the  brains  to  do  what 
Toledo  did  [he  wrote  to  A.  E.  Macomber,  the  attorney  who 
had  assisted  him  in  his  book],  has  not  the  spunk  to  compel 
its  public  officials  to  press  a  suit  of  this  character,  which  it 
is  my  judgment,  and  I  believe  yours,  could  be  brought  to 
a  successful  issue,  I  do  not  know  where  we  are  to  look  for 
any  hope  of  a  successful  struggle  with  these  commercial 
monsters. 

He  wrote  to  Mayor  Jones: 

Is  it  too  late  to  do  anything  to  arrest  this  awful  depreda- 
tion? .  .  .  Our  aspirations  for  brotherhood  and  a  better 
order  of  things  must  take  concrete  forms  of  resistance  to 
outrages  like  this  at  some  point  of  their  development.  Such 
has  been  the  course  of  all  the  progress  of  the  past,  and  ours 
is  to  be  no  exception.  It  seems  to  me  a  most  lamentable 
thing  that  the  people  of  Toledo  should  be  despoiled  .  .  . 
and  not  a  hand  raised  to  save  them,  and  that  so  courageous 
and  prudent  an  enterprise  of  municipalisation  should  come 
to  so  untimely  an  end.  If  no  other  means  are  provided  for 
the  protection  of  the  people,  they  will  some  day  take  their 
protection  in  their  own  hands,  and  their  methods  will  be  so 
rough  that  many  of  their  friends  as  well  as  their  enemies 
will  wish  that  another  system  had  been  followed,  but  then 
it  will  be  too  late. 

Another  stronghold  was  lost  when  The  Kingdom 
Publishing  Company  with  its  periodical  The  Kingdom, 
edited  by  advanced  professors  and  ministers,  was  forced 
to  suspend.  As  a  result  of  its  publication  of  George 
A.  Gates's  pamphlet,  A  Foe  to  American  Schools,  which 
claimed  that  the  American  Book  Company  controlled 


144  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

the  text-books  of  the  public  schools,  it  was  sued  by  the 
Company  for  $300,000  damages  and  lost  the  case. 
Lloyd  acted  as  receiver  for  its  defence  fund.  The  issue 
thus  raised  regarding  the  influencing  of  the  opinions  of 
the  young  was,  he  considered,  one  of  the  most  momen- 
tous that  could  be  presented  to  the  American  people. 

At  this  time  a  leading  magnate  was  detected  in  a 
scandalous  offence,  the  story  of  which  became  known  in 
a  small  circle  of  the  church  and  press,  and  produced 
a  great  shock  under  the  surface.  The  chief  witness 
became  the  subject  of  an  open  and  virulent  persecu- 
tion. As  the  sensational  episode  developed,  the  powers 
of  church,  state,  society,  and  the  courts  were  wielded  to 
shield  the  guilty  magnate,  while  the  poor  and  innocent 
man  faced  ruin.  Mr.  Lloyd  became  much  stirred,  saw 
that  the  opportunity  to  learn  the  right  version  reached 
as  many  as  possible  of  the  moulders  of  public  opinion, 
including  ministers,  editors,  professors,  and  one  or  two 
novelists,  and  urged  them  to  bring  it  into  the  light. 
He  believed  that  its  publication  would  have  a  great 
effect  in  opening  the  eyes  of  the  people.  The  original 
scandal  he  reiterated  was  unimportant  except  as  the 
occasion  for  the  development  of  a  living  drama,  re- 
vealing the  power  of  wealth  over  all  the  great  institu- 
tions of  our  democracy.  His  interest  was  that  of  a  man 
deeply  and  patriotically  concerned  for  what  he  called 
"the  terrible  portents  of  this  astounding  episode." 
"It  offers  an  opportunity,"  he  said,  "to  strike  a  blow 
at  the  most  dangerous  enemy  the  American  people 
have  to-day,  that  if  delivered  as  it  can  be  by  shrewd 
and  yet  brave  men  might  easily  be  crippling.  ...  If 
this  moves  on  to  the  consummation  which  is  now 
promised,  an  opportunity  will  have  been  lost  for  the 
salvation  of  this  country  which  may  never  recur. " 


"Our  Old  Enemy"  145 

But  although  the  story  became  known  in  every 
newspaper  office  in  a  great  metropolis,  and  was  hanging 
fire  for  two  years,  it  was  never  published.  Unconnected 
bits  appeared  now  and  then  and  mystified  the  public. 
Mr.  Lloyd  was  dismayed  at  this  new  evidence  of  the 
helplessness  of  the  people.  He  said  he  was  forced  to 
feel  that  the  silence  of  the  press  was  due  to  a  cowardly 
fear  of  the  money  of  the  other  side.  "We  were  not 
given  our  country  by  that  sort  of  spirit,  and  we  cannot 
keep  it  so." 

Attorney-General  F.  S.  Monnett  of  Ohio  was  in 
1898  waging  his  fight  against  the  Standard  Oil  Com- 
pany. As  it  had  not  heeded  a  decree  obtained  by  his 
predecessor  forfeiting  its  Ohio  charter,  Judge  Monnett 
took  steps  to  punish  for  contempt.  The  suit  aroused 
strong  sentiment  against  the  Standard,  especially  when 
a  statement  appeared  in  the  press  of  its  attempt  at 
bribery.  Monnett  then  filed  a  bill  of  complaint  in  the 
Supreme  Court  of  Ohio  in  case  No.  2294,  and  set  forth 
the  entire  history  of  the  attempted  bribery  of  himself 
and  his  predecessor.  In  the  following  October,  wishing 
to  get  testimony  supporting  this  charge  on  file  before  he 
retired  from  office,  he  served  notices  upon  the  Standard 
Oil  attorneys  that  depositions  would  be  taken  in  his 
office  on  October  26  (1899).  An  order  of  the  Supreme 
Court,  however,  summarily  prevented  this  action  as 
"premature. "  Monnett  wrote  of  this  to  Lloyd,  saying: 

The  only  thing  left  for  me  to  do  would  have  been  to  have 
gone  on  and  taken  the  testimony  before  our  own  officer,  and 
then  have  been  sent  to  jail  for  contempt  of  court.  .  .  . 

This  news  stirred  Mr.  Lloyd  profoundly,  and  he 
offered  Judge  Monnett  every  assistance. 


VOL.  II — 10 


146  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

I  received  a  telegram  and  letter  from  him  following  it  up 
[said  Judge  Monnett],  .  .  .  stating  that  I  should  go  ahead 
and  take  the  depositions  in  defiance  of  the  Court  and  go  to 
jail  for  contempt,  .  .  .  and  that  he  would  come  and  sit  in 
jail  by  my  side  as  many  days  as  I  was  obliged  to  serve  in 
confinement. 

In  December,  1899,  the  Court,  having  forbidden  the 
taking  of  evidence,  ordered  the  allegations  stricken 
from  the  files  because  of  lack  of  evidence,  and  Monnett's 
successor  dismissed  all  the  suits.  Mr.  Lloyd  tried  to 
persuade  Judge  Monnett  to  write  the  history  of  this 
contest,  but  as  in  the  cases  of  Rice  and  Sherman,  the 
Independents,  and  other  instances  where  he  made 
similar  suggestions,  he  met  with  no  success.  Thus  in 
bitterness  of  spirit  did  he  witness  one  downfall  after 
another  of  the  people's  side.  He  wrote  a  brief  manu- 
script, "The  Nullification  of  the  People's  Will": 

I  have  been  watching  the  social  horizon  as  a  student  for 
more  than  twenty  years,  and  there  has  not  been  a  day  of 
that  twenty  years  as  there  was  not  a  day  before  when  the 
clouds  of  the  power  that  makes  our  problem  did  not  rise 
higher  and  grow  greater  and  darker.  From  the  beginning 
the  people  have  been  fighting  a  losing  fight.  Tammany 
was  killed  the  first  time  in  1870.  .  .  .  Dr.  Parkhurst  and 
his  young  men  killed  Tammany  off  again  only  a  few  years 
ago.  Never  was  there  a  finer  vindication  of  all  the  claims 
made  for  self-government  than  in  the  course  of  the  American 
people  in  dealing  with  the  railroad  problem.  The  charges 
that  railroad  men  were  using  their  power  over  freight  rates  as 
a  means  of  selecting  favourites  in  each  industry  who  should 
be  the  only  men  allowed  to  succeed  in  business,  brought  out 
by  the  most  independent,  public-spirited,  and  fearless  press 
in  the  world,  were  subjected  to  the  most  careful  investi- 
gation by  grand  juries,  State  legislatures,  the  courts,  the 
national  Congress.  The  facts  were  overwhelmingly  proved 


"Our  Old  Enemy"  147 

to  be  as  charged.  This  settled,  the  proper  remedy  was 
debated  in  the  American  way  and  given  an  American 
decision.  The  Interstate  Commerce  Commission  was  insti- 
tuted. Nothing  was  ever  more  clearly  and  properly  a 
verdict  of  the  popular  will  than  that  which  led  to  the  crea- 
tion of  this  tribunal.  Jackson  said  he  would  hang  Calhoun 
if  he  carried  out  his  threats  of  nullification.  But  the  great 
shippers  and  the  railroad  officials  and  the  United  States 
Supreme  Court  have  nullified  all  this  work  of  the  people 
and  there  has  been  no  Jackson. 

In  these  and  scores  of  other  affairs,  State  as  well  as 
national,  in  canals  and  interstate  railroads,  as  well  as  in 
gas  and  street  cars,  government  has  become  a  means  not  of 
expressing  but  of  nullifying  the  people's  declared  will;  of 
invading  not  defending  the  people's  homes,  and  despoiling 
not  promoting  the  common  welfare.  There  is,  herein,  no 
government.  There  are  many  names  which  might  be  given 
these  acts,  as  ready  to  your  tongue  as  mine,  but  they  are 
not  government.  Before  the  Supremest  Court  of  all,  the 
court  of  the  sovereign  people,  who  still  possess  all  the  powers 
they  have  not  delegated  to  their  agents,  and  who  never 
delegated  the  powers  to  sell  special  privileges  for  bribes  or 
campaign  contributions,  these  acts  of  no  government,  of 
anti-government,  confer  no  rights,  pass  no  titles,  create  no 
property. 

There  was  now  being  swiftly  ushered  in  the  greatest 
era  in  trust  development.  While  Mr.  Lloyd  was  in 
New  Zealand  a  friend  wrote  him: 

Never  before  has  there  been  such  a  rush  and  mania  for 
forming  trusts  as  in  the  last  three  months.  Over  one  hund- 
red of  these  "Industrials"  capitalised  at  over  $3,000,000,- 
ooo  have  been  organised  under  the  "  Laws  of  New  Jersey. " 
...  I  never  saw  or  heard  of  anything  like  it.  ...  Even 
Matthew  Marshall  and  the  New  York  Sun  advised  them  to 
make  haste  a  little  more  slowly,  George  Gunton  fears  that 


148  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

too  much  of  a  good  thing  at  a  time  may  sicken  even  the 
readers  of  his  magazine,  and  lastly  Lyman  J.  Gage  and 
Chauncey  M.  Depew  advised  the  bankers  of  New  York  to 
be  careful  how  they  accepted  the  stock  of  these  new  "  Indus- 
trials" as  collateral  for  loans.  .  .  .  U.  S.  Attorney-General 
Griggs  recently  stated  that  neither  the  Sherman  Anti- 
Trust  law  nor  any  other  constitutional  act  would  enable 
the  Federal  Government  to  handle  the  trust  problems,  it 
must  be  attended  to  if  at  all  by  the  several  States.  The 
Times-Herald  and  N.  Y.  World  then  secured  the  opinions  of 
nearly  all  the  Governors  and  Attorney-Generals  of  States 
and  the  consensus  of  these  incompetents  was  that  the 
States  are  powerless. 

The  trusts  were  now  using  their  power,  said  Lloyd, 
in  ways  which  would  not  have  been  attempted  ten 
years  before.  During  these  closing  years  of  the  old 
century,  and  the  opening  ones  of  the  new,  he  was 
watching  and  studying  with  deep  concern  their  increas- 
ing dominion.  In  the  presidential  campaign  of  1900 
they  were  a  direct  issue  for  the  first  time.  Unconscious- 
ness of  danger  was  fast  disappearing.  Periodicals  were 
filled  with  recitals  of  corruption.  Enlightened  opinion 
was  forcing  legislation  against  the  trusts  in  a  majority 
of  the  States,  but  with  no  result.  Rulers  who  were  not 
in  earnest  or  not  thorough  were  going  through  forms 
of  anti-trust  legislation  and  government  investigation 
in  Washington,  which  was  giving  great  comfort,  said 
Lloyd,  to  many  good  people — the  "too  good" — who 
could  believe  in  its  sincerity : 

Watch  the  farce  to-day  of  anti-trust  legislation  in  Wash- 
ington. See  the  confectionery-makers  of  Congress  making 
their  pretty  little  candy  castles  to  imprison  the  giant  tyrants 
of  the  trusts. 

The  railroads  were  the  mainsprings  of  their  power. 


"Our  Old  Enemy"  149 

A  few  railroad  kings  were  planning  complete  possession 
of  the  highways.  "The  whole  country  is  veneered  with 
railway  commissions,"  he  told  the  Massachusetts 
Reform  Club  in  1902.  "The  Interstate  Commerce 
Commission  has  fought  the  railroads  to  the  death — 
its  death,"  he  said.  What  have  "mountains  of  strenu- 
ousness"  done  against  the  trusts?  he  asked,  reviewing 
the  work  of  the  Congress  of  1902.  It  passed  the  Elkins 
Amendment,  prohibiting  rebates,  but  failed  to  provide 
any  means  for  carrying  out  the  prohibition,  or  to  confer 
power  to  declare  that  rates  shall  be  just,  for  the  danger 
had  now  become  in  his  opinion  not  discriminating,  but 
extortionate  rates.  Meanwhile  the  courts,  State  and 
Federal,  were  declaring  legislation  for  the  relief  of  labour, 
timid  as  it  was,  "unconstitutional."  As  he  saw  the 
avenues  of  relief  and  self-government  closing  while 
the  tyranny  widened,  he  was  panic-stricken,  and  watched 
with  apprehension  the  approach  of  a  crisis.  "We  are 
in  the  rapids  of  a  new  era,"  he  said.  When  some 
event  brought  him  face  to  face  with  the  oppression 
his  anger  flamed  out.  The  outlook  for  the  mass  of 
the  people  was  very  dubious.  He  saw  the  difficulty  of 
organised  action,  for  South  was  divided  against  North, 
East  against  West,  white  against  black,  rich  against 
poor,  native  against  foreigner,  Catholic  against  Protest- 
ant. In  a  letter  in  1900,  he  wrote: 

The  situation  of  affairs  in  this  country  is  desperate  beyond 
belief.  The  people  are  so  divisible  it  is  almost  impossible 
to  unite  them,  and  the  few,  who  can  unite,  are  likely  to 
possess  everything  and  everybody.  For  escape  my  only 
hope  is  in  the  gentlemen  on  the  other  side — that  they  may  go 
too  far  too  fast.  Men  drunk  with  power  sometimes  do  that. 

The  years  had  strengthened  his  earlier  opinions  on 


150  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

the  trusts'  administration.  He  renewed  his  charges 
that  they  were  "cruel  incompetents,"  unable  to  achieve 
the  attempt  to  manage  their  own  business  and  that  of 
every  one  else.  He  again  denied  their  other  claims, 
such  as  that  of  giving  cheapness  and  creating  wealth. 
He  wrote  to  Carroll  D.  Wright,  Commissioner  of 
Labour,  in  1898: 

...  I  have  never  yet  succeeded  in  obtaining  any  evidence 
that  the  oil  trust  has  made  oil  cheap.  On  the  contrary  it 
is  perfectly  evident  that  it  is  dearer  than  it  would  be  were  it 
not  for  them.  The  methods  of  the  trust  are  not  economic 
methods.  The  directing  force  is  too  distant  in  its  central- 
isation to  make  it  an  economic  agent.  I  am  a  sceptic 
throughout  with  regard  to  the  praises  which  it  is  the  fashion 
to  bestow  on  "the  great  industry."  I  note,  as  one  of  the 
most  recent  facts  going  my  way,  that  in  Queensland,  Aus- 
tralia, the  small  sugar-grower  can  produce  sugar  cheaper 
than  the  large  concern.  If  monopoly  and  highly  centralised 
industries  are  cheaper  than  those  in  which  the  self-interest 
and  the  vigilance  of  the  proprietor  is  in  direct  contact  with 
methods  and  markets,  all  past  human  experience  has  gone 
for  naught. 

In  commenting  on  a  thesis  of  Sidney  Webb's,  "The 
result  of  the  great  capitalists'  co-operation  secures  the 
best  possible  organisation  of  the  world,"  he  wrote  in 
1902: 

In  that  sentence  Mr.  Webb  has  expressed  what  I  believe 
to  be  the  strongest  bulwark  in  public  opinion  for  the  great 
monopolies  of  our  time.  It  is  because  the  people  believe 
this  to  be  true  that  they  submit  to  the  things  these  great 
capitalist  co-operations  are  doing.  Even  if  this  co-operation 
were  as  good  as  possible  under  existing  circumstances,  it 
seems  to  me  he  would  have  no  right  to  say  that  it  is  the  best 
possible.  I  think  it  would  be  easy  to  show  that  the  great 


''Our  Old  Enemy"  151 

combinations  are  doing  business  destructive  of  wealth — 
among  other  ways  by  the  denial  of  use  to  human  energy  and 
natural  resources. 

He  was  investigating  the  cost  of  such  a  demonstra- 
tion, and  intended  to  have  it  done  as  soon  as  he  was 
released  from  his  financial  stress.  He  believed  that  the 
method  of  unification  being  achieved  by  the  co-operators 
of  the  world  was  a  superior  form  to  that  of  the  trust. 
His  ideas  are  found  in  his  last  note-books: 

In  the  field  of  concentration  the  labour-saving  machinery 
of  the  high  finance  and  high  commerce,  such  as  corporations 
and  combinations  of  corporations,  the  salient,  significant 
thing  is  not  the  concentration  of  wealth  and  power  which 
"the  school  of  plausibility"  like  Atkinson  worship.  These 
splendid  conquests  are  but  the  usurpations  of  selfishness 
taking  possession  for  itself  of  that  which  is  the  really  great 
thing  here.  And  that  is  the  morale  and  intellect  and 
experience,  by  which  the  people  have  finally  gained  the 
ability  to  work  together  in  large  masses  and  in  great  enter- 
prises. It  is  their  discipline,  their  intelligence,  their  trust- 
worthiness, that  makes  it  possible  for  the  ten  thousand 
employees  of  the  great  railroads  to  obey  a  single  will  sitting 
thousands  of  miles  away.  The  Vanderbilt  or  the  Gould 
or  the  Rockefeller  is  but  the  passing  exploiter  of  this  new 
power  of  the  people.  We  say  the  concentrations  do  better, 
cheaper,  etc.,  and  we  give  to  those  self-seeking  adventurers 
who  have  seized  upon  this  new  wealth  of  the  people's  power 
to  associate,  the  credit  of  being  its  creators.  They  are 
really  its  hinderers,  interceptors,  cripplers.  It  will  be  more 
when  they  have  been  pushed  aside.  This  distinction  be- 
tween the  temporary  glory  of  the  conquerors  and  the  new 
resource  which  made  the  people  worth  conquering  is  funda- 
mental. Once  it  is  recognised  it  will  be  seen  that  here  are 
the  buds  of  the  new  civilisation  we  all  hope  for.  Not  least 
of  these  new  powers  of  co-operation  is  that  by  which  the 


152 

people  of  any  town  in  the  United  States  of  standing  can 
sell  pieces  of  paper  promises  called  bonds  in  any  money 
market  here  or  abroad,  and  get  water-works,  gas,  or  any 
other  of  the  great  conveniences  and  necessities  of  modern 
city  life. 

Wilshire  says  (Magazine,  July,  1902,  p.  27)  that  the 
purpose  of  the  trusts  is  to  prevent  overproduction.  This 
is  absurd.  The  purpose  of  the  trusts  is  to  prevent  the 
benefit  of  a  new  process  of  production  from  accruing  to  the 
benefit  of  the  people.  Also  to  prevent  the  capitalists  .  .  . 
[illegible]  from  being  disturbed ;  also  to  prevent  the  people, 
who  would  be  much  more  powerful  in  politics  if  they  got 
the  benefit  of  the  new  wealth  they  create,  from  getting  that 
wealth  and  that  power.  It  is  the  use  of  certain  new  pro- 
cesses of  communication,  production,  distribution,  by  the 
capitalists  for  their  own  benefit  at  the  cost  of  the  people. 
It  is  a  step  exactly  analogous  to  the  usurpation  of  the  owner- 
ship of  the  land  by  the  head  of  the  clan,  who  from  being 
the  protector  of  the  tribe  becomes  its  landlord.  It  is 
exactly  analogous  to  the  mutiny  in  India,  when  the  English 
made  the  tax-gatherer  the  landowner.  It  is  embezzlement. 
It  is  a  not  necessary  step  in  economic  evolution.  It  is  pure 
spoliation.  It  is  a  defiance  of  the  principle  of  representative 
responsibility  and  the  stewardship  of  wealth. 

He  believed  that  the  sooner  their  career  of  wreckage 
was  stopped  the  better,  as  letters  and  notes  show.  He 
wrote  to  an  English  correspondent  in  1898,  when  Eng- 
lish employers  had,  he  believed,  abandoned  their  friend- 
liness to  trade-unions  and  deliberately  entered  upon  a 
policy  of  extermination : 

The  world  is  rapidly  moving  forward  to  a  great  crisis. 
...  I  am  profoundly  impressed  by  the  reactionary  course 
which  seems  to  be  threatened  in  England,  imitating  Amer- 
ica, with  regard  to  trade-unions.  However,  the  sooner  the 


"Our  Old  Enemy"  153 

working  people,  and  the  people,  become  thoroughly  con- 
vinced that  the  trade-union  proposition  is  no  social 
solution,  the  better,  I  suppose.  My  conviction  of  this, 
however,  would  by  no  means  restrain  me  from  doing  every- 
thing that  I  possibly  could  in  behalf  of  the  trade-unions. 
I  believe  in  fighting  for  every  inch  of  the  ground;  and  I 
believe  also  that  the  turning  point,  which  must  be  found 
somewhere,  should  be  found  as  far  as  possible  this  side  of 
ruin.  It  is  for  this  reason  that  I  thoroughly  disbelieve  in 
the  policy  of  some  socialists  of  letting  everything  drift  into 
the  hands  of  the  trusts  with  the  idea  that  we  can  then, 
by  a  coup  d'economie,  change  masters  from  monopolist  to 
democracy.  Just  as  we  are  about  to  shake  ourselves  for 
this  grand  transformation,  we  may  find,  too  late,  that  the 
process  of  preparation  has  annihilated  us. 

'The  current  socialistic  and  popular  view  of  the  trusts,  let 
them  go  on,  we  will  take  them  by-and-by,  is, 

1.  Wholly  unscientific.      The  trust  is  not   a   necessary 
result,  an  inevitable  end  of  our  business  system.     It  is  only 
because  we  tolerate  the  wholesale  betrayal  and  disregard  of 
ideals  by  the  men  who  are  in  charge  of  industry.     There 
are  many  thousands  of  men  who  refuse  to  allow  greed  to  be 
the  ruling  passion  of  their  lives.     What  they  have  done, 
others  can  do;  what  they  have  done,  we  could  make  the 
ideal  of  all  by  education.     If  we  would  enforce  the  repre- 
sentative responsibility  of  wealth  and  power  in  industry, 
we  would  immediately  put  an  end  to  this  whole  embezzle- 
ment. .  .  . 

2.  The  people  of  New  Zealand  and  Switzerland2  have  not 
waited  till  the  trust  was  the  master.     They  have  seen  that 
the  railroads  and  the  coal  companies,  etc.,  etc.,  would  be 
the  masters  if  left  to  themselves  and  have  stopped  them  in 
their  mad  career. 

1  Note-book,  1902. 

MNew  Zealand  at  this  time  was  taking  peaceful  possession  of  its 
coal  mines,  and  Switzerland  of  its  railroads. 


154  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

3.  The  socialist  position  is  wholly  immoral.  It  leaves 
entirely  out  of  consideration  not  the  moral  and  economic 
questions  whether  the  things  now  done  by  the  rich  men  in 
the  process  of  forming  these  trusts  are  economically  pro- 
fitable— like  shut-downs — but  it  disregards  the  moral  ques- 
tion whether  it  is  right.  And  among  these  moral  questions 
are  questions  like  the  wholesale  murder  of  the  poor;  the 
wholesale  domination  of  the  standard  of  life  among  all 
classes;  the  encouragement  of  vice  among  the  rich;  the 
lowering  of  the  standard  of  morals  among  the  influential 
classes;  the  sacrifice  of  the  family,  the  individual,  the  state. 

No  one  can  survey  the  present  state  of  business  and 
industrial  affairs  without  coming  to  the  conclusion  that  it  is 
wholly  wicked;  wholly  unprofitable;  wholly  unallowable  to 
any  one  with  the  least  sense  of  true  interest  and  true  religion. 
It  should  not  be  allowed  to  go  on  to  its  consummation.  It 
should  be  erased  now  and  for  ever. 

Over  and  over  again  his  last  words,  public  and  pri- 
vate, said  that  the  people  must  take  possession.  A  note 
sketched  in  his  note-book  of  March,  1903,  shows  his 
position: 

Millionaire — Billionaire — Trillionaire — we  want  nothing 
they  have  which  belongs  to  them.  We  want  only  what 
they  have  which  belongs  to  us.  Even  things  they  have 
which  they  wrongfully  took  from  us  they  may  keep, — their 
yachts,  their  racers,  their  lace,  their  palaces.  There  's  not 
an  honest  palace  in  the  world — but  let  them  keep  them. 
But  the  opportunities  they  have  taken  from  us — those  they 
cannot  keep.  The  chances  to  build  people's  palaces,  those 
they  must  give  back  to  the  people.  Their  tawdry,  vulgar 
trappings  of  luxury  and  fashion,  they  can  keep.  The 
mutilated  nature  they  call  their  parks  and  preserves,  they 
can  keep.  But  they  must  take  down  their  "No  Trespass" 
signs  on  the  resources  of  nature,  land,  manufacturing, 
machinery,  they  call  "theirs,"  when  they  are  only  stewards. 


"Our  Old  Enemy"  155 

What  they  have  that  is  ours  and  that  we  need — that  we 
want  back — the  ownership  of  our  coal,  oil,  iron,  highways, 
inventions,  tools  of  livelihood,  keys  of  opportunity.  They 
themselves  call  themselves  trustees.  Well,  we  are  of  age. 
We  ask  for  an  accounting.  We  will  take  back  the  trust; 
we  will  administer  it  ourselves.  These  men  are  embezzlers, 
if  they  refuse  to  deliver  it  up. 

"Its  government  must  be  recovered  by  the  American 
people,"  he  said,  "peacefully,  if  possible,  but  it  must 
be  recovered."  He  fervently  hoped  that  the  world 
had  passed  beyond  the  possibility  of  repeating  primi- 
tive cruelty  as  of  the  French  Revolution.  Talking 
informally  to  the  Ethical  Society  one  evening  in  1903, 
he  spoke  of  the  possibility  of  our  progress  being  through 
some  crisis  of  revolution,  as  to  the  successful  conclusion 
of  which  he  was  absolutely  sanguine,  and  said  that 
cataclysms  were  as  much  a  part  of  evolution  as  the  less 
dynamic  processes  on  which  so  much  emphasis  is 
placed  by  the  academicians  nowadays.  He  corrected 
a  sensational  report  of  these  remarks  in  the  Chicago 
Chronicle1: 

At  the  supper  of  the  Ethical  Society  at  the  Hull  House 
last  night  I  did  not  advocate  revolution,  and  there  was  no 
applause  of  revolution  by  the  Ethical  Society.  What  I 
said  was  that  our  socialism  might  not  be  all  evolutionary, 
that  there  might  be  "some  touches  of  revolutionary  social- 
ism, "  but  that  if  it  came  it  would  be  because  the  men  who 
are  getting  the  control  of  all  our  industry  and  politics  denied 
the  people  peaceful  outlet  of  relief  and  redress. 

No  one  but  a  fool  would  advocate  revolution.  No  one 
but  a  fool  would  believe  revolution  impossible.  Coming 
events  cast  their  phrases  before.  The  "higher  law"  came 
years  before  the  emancipation  proclamation.  A  new 

1  Chicago  Chronicle,  March  3  and  5,  1903. 


156  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

phrase,  "the  higher  property,"  is  already  heard.     What  is 
that  the  herald  of? 

Of  the  men  of  the  trusts  who  were  rising  more  pro- 
minently into  view,  he  rarely  spoke  publicly.  He  con- 
tinued his  assertion  that  they  ought  to  be  in  jail, 
and  privately  suggested  their  banishment.  In  1898, 
in  an  address  to  the  Nineteenth  Century  Club  in 
New  York,  he  said,  speaking  of  the  applause  which  had 
greeted  a  great  jurist  when  he  branded  the  betrayers 
of  Philadelphia: 

We  listen  to  a  clapping  of  hands  which  we  must  hope  will 
not  cease  in  this  country  until  it  has  clapped  the  doors  of  a 
palace  of  justice  on  men  who,  formidable  as  they  are,  are  not 
as  formidable  to  us  of  the  Republic  realised,  as  Charles  I.  and 
Louis  XVI.  were  to  the  Puritan  and  Huguenot  ancestors 
of  whom  we  boast.  If  we  take  the  pedigree,  we  must  take 
the  example  too.  Vengeance  is  mine?  Overcome  evil  with 
good?  Yes.  But  if  we  do  adopt  this  Tolstoian  code,  let 
our  mercy  be  for  both  small  and  great,  to  all,  not  to  the 
great  alone.  Put  the  big  thieves  in  jail,  or  let  out  the  little 
ones. 

"The  craziest  fools  in  history,"  he  said  they  were  to 
believe  that  they  could  hold  under  arbitrary  power  a 
liberty-loving  people  like  the  Americans.  "We  do 
not  wish  to  pursue,  to  humiliate  these  men, "  he  said  to 
Senate  committees  in  Maine  and  Massachusetts, 
"but  we  must  domesticate  them  into  good  citizens — 
fellow  citizens. " 

The  margin  of  compensation  which  he  advocated 
in  case  of  expropriation  was  becoming  narrower.  When 
in  1898  Mayor  Pingree  of  Detroit  warned  the  public 
that  certain  street  railway  bonds  were  illegal  and  void, 
and  advocated  the  "forfeiture  of  all  licenses  and  leases 


"Our  Old  Enemy"  157 

obtained  by  fraud,"  Lloyd  congratulated  him  on  his 
"pernicious  activities,"  and  quoted  him  with  approval 
in  a  public  address : 

In  this  he  voices  a  public  opinion  which  means  to  munici- 
palise and  nationalise  many  things,  but  will  never  munici- 
palise and  nationalise  the  financial  dropsy  of  void,  watered, 
and  fraudulent  stocks  and  bonds. 

In  1901  he  wrote  to  Professor  Bemis: 

I  don't  regard  our  situation  as  so  simple  as  to  be  settled 
by  mere  "government  ownership"  of  monopolies.  I  care 
nothing  for  the  denunciation  nor  even  punishment  of  our 
Captain  Kidds,  and  I  do  not  think  they  have  been  created 
by  our  social  institutions  but  by  the  violation  of  them.  But 
here  is  the  point  as  I  see  it.  Through  their  usurpations, 
violations,  etc.,  these  men  have  become  the  masters  of  us. 
If  we  buy  them  out,  we  but  worsen  our  position,  for  then  we 
become  their  slaves  as  bondsmen.  No  reform  will  be  a  real 
reform  that  does  not  destroy  the  present  predominance  of 
this  property  and  its  owners.  The  very  utmost  I  would 
leave  them,  either  by  expropriation  or  taxation,  would  be 
enough  to  maintain  their  living  on  its  present  scale.  I 
know  all  that  can  be  said  as  to  this  not  being  now  "a 
practical  question."  I  say  in  reply  that  anything  short  of 
this  will  also  like  all  our  half  reforms  prove  still  less  "prac- 
tical." 

j 

When  he  lectured  in  Providence  in  1902,  Mr.  Koop- 
man,  librarian  of  Brown  University,  entered  the  follow- 
ing in  his  diary: 

Henry  D.  Lloyd  spoke  at  Bell  Street  Chapel  last  evening 
on  New  Zealand  in  particular,  but  more  on  democracy  in 
general.  After  the  lecture,  Sidney  A.  Sherman,  Robert 
Grieve,  and  I  walked  down  to  the  station  with  him  and  saw 
him  off  for  Boston.  He  talked  with  us  about  the  future 


158  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

government  purchase  of  monopolies,  which  he  believed  to 
be  certain,  and  laid  stress  on  the  danger  of  saddling  a 
perpetual  bonded  debt  on  the  country  in  payment  to  the 
monopolists.  Lloyd  would  pay  them  in  moderate,  even 
generous,  life-annuities,  which  would  wipe  out  the  debt  in 
one  generation.  Lloyd  is  an  elegant,  modest  gentleman — 
a  born  aristocrat  to  look  at — who  is  also  an  orator,  writer, 
sociologist,  and  patriot  of  the  first  rank. 

The  trustees  must  all  render  up  their  trusts  [he  wrote  in 
one  of  his  last  articles].  For  this  expropriation  there  must 
be  compensation  of  course,  but  the  trustee  will  do  well,  in 
haggling  about  the  price,  to  remember  that  ordinary  trus- 
tees have  to  give  an  accounting. 

To  vanquish  our  enemy,  "the  too  rich,"  and  to 
triumph  was  the  task  and  the  destiny  he  saw  before 
the  people. 

To  face  the  truth  that  the  naked  issue  of  our  times  is  with 
wealth  overgrown  until  tyrannical  and  criminal,  that  it  has 
become  the  public  enemy,  and  that  we  have  to  democratise 
this  power  makes  us  flinch,  as  even  Cromwell  did.  But 
such  is  our  task.  We  can  celebrate  George  Washington 
only  by  looking  independence  into  the  eyes  of  our  king. 
And  we  know  that  we  shall  vanquish  this  public  enemy — 
the  too  rich — because  all  the  great  literary  men  from  Isaiah 
and  Plato  to  Emerson  and  Ruskin  have  been  for  us  and 
against  him,  and  nothing  has  ever  been  able  to  stand  against 
the  pen. 

Emerson's  words,  "justice  with  heart  of  steel," 
described  our  need.  When  he  saw  the  gentle  and 
valiant  Mayor  Jones  relaxing  in  the  severity  of  his 
judgments  against  the  oil  trust,  he  wrote: 

I  believe,  of  course,  with  you  that  there  should  be  a 
kindly  tone  in  the  discussion  of  this  social  question,  but  I 
believe  also  that  we  must  be  stern  as  well  as  good-natured. 


"Our  Old  Enemy"  159 

Only  stern  and  good-natured  people  can  make  a  democracy 
work — good-natured  in  giving  to  each  other  through  their 
government  all  they  get  from  each  other  through  their 
government ;  stern  to  exterminate  the  thieves  of  reciprocity 
who  would  take  all  and  give  nothing. 

With  the  years  his  warnings  were  more  impassioned,, 
"Our  dream,  our  fathers'  dream,  of  a  political  paradise 
of  equals  is  over,"  were  among  his  last  words.  But 
under  all,  his  faith  never  faltered. 

You  ask  me  if  I  can  offer  you  any  words  of  comfort  [he 
wrote  to  an  anxious  reformer  in  1899].  The  fact  that  you 
ask  such  a  question  is  one  of  the  evidences  that  words  of 
comfort  will  come  to  be  in  promising  supply.  Look  back  ten 
years  at  the  amount  of  literature  produced  on  these  ques- 
tions, and  look  back  ten  years  and  compare  the  status  then 
with  the  concentration  that  has  gone  on  since.  Is  it  not 
evidence  that  we  are  rapidly  approaching  the  time  when  the 
people  will  move  under  the  spur  of  the  sufferings  of  which 
you  speak  to  a  remedy?  Read  the  translation  of  the  newly 
discovered  work  by  Aristotle  on  the  Athenian  Constitution, 
and  see  there  how  the  same  causes  sent  the  people  forward. 
I  see  great  suffering,  terrible  crises  in  the  immediate  future, 
but  that  does  not  appall  me.  They  are  to  be  birth-pangs. 


CHAPTER  XXI 

"IN  THE  RAPIDS  OF  A  NEW  ERA*' 

I  LOYD  courageously  kept  his  gaze  on  the  light 
1— *  which  streaked  the  far  horizon.  His  moments 
of  despondency  were  buried  in  his  own  heart  or 
closed  in  his  note-book,  or  confided  to  a  friend.  Their 
effect  on  his  public  work  was  to  increase  his  vigilance 
and  to  accelerate  his  efforts  to  gather  messages  of  hope. 
Spreading  broadcast  the  news  of  triumphant  democracy, 
his  books  and  lectures  opened  the  century  with  that 
constructive  note  which  he  believed  was  to  dominate. 
On  the  last  midnight  of  the  nineteenth  century  he  was 
among  the  citizens  who  at  the  steps  of  the  Massachu- 
setts State-house  greeted  the  twentieth. 

Mrs.  Lloyd  and  I,  who  stood  near  the  buildings  on  your 
right  hand,  half-way  towards  Beacon  Street  [he  wrote  to 
Edward  Everett  Hale],  heard  every  syllable  you  said,  and 
were  proud,  for  Boston,  the  people,  the  occasion,  and  our- 
selves, that  the  approach  of  the  new  century  had  such  a 
Herald! 

To  a  symposium  on  "What  may  be  in  the  Twentieth 
Century, " '  he  contributed  a  brief  prophecy : 

...  A  score  of  men  will  become  the  masters  of  society. 
This  will  be  the  turning-point.  The  social  alarm  now 

1  The  Congrcgationalist,  January,  1901. 

160 


"  In  the  Rapids  of  a  New  Era  "        161 

gathering  in  the  middle-class  heart  will  overflow,  and  the 
social  revolution  will  be  the  due  evolutionary  successor  of 
the  industrial  revolution.  Equal  power  will  be  as  invariable 
a  function  of  citizenship  as  the  equal  franchise.  Power  will 
flow  in  every  house  and  shop  as  freely  as  water.  All  men 
will  become  capitalists  and  all  capitalists  co-operators.  The 
working-day  will  be  shortened  far  beyond  the  eight-hour- 
day  dream.  Leisure  and  independence  will  become  rights 
as  universal  and  commonplace  as  the  abolition  of  serfdom. 
The  people  will  have  the  time  and  freedom  to  be  democrats. 

Women,  released  from  the  economic  pressure  which  has 
forced  them  to  deny  their  best  nature  and  compete  in 
unnatural  industry  with  men,  will  be  re-sexed.  The  thrift 
infanticide,  which  would  depopulate  the  world,  will  itself 
be  prevented — the  more  people,  the  more  brotherhood  and 
the  more  wealth;  life  will  be  more  prized  than  the  conven- 
tionalities; all  motherhood  will  become  immaculate,  every 
child  legitimate,  and  every  father  responsible.  The  smoke 
nuisance  in  the  cities  will  be  abolished,  and  so  will  the  cities 
themselves.  The  new  rapid  transit,  making  it  possible  for 
cities  to  be  four  or  five  hundred  miles  in  diameter  and  yet 
keep  the  farthest  point  within  an  hour  of  the  centre,  will 
complete  the  suburbanisation  of  every  metropolis. 

Every  house  will  be  a  centre  of  sunshine  and  scenery,  and 
every  school  a  garden  school.  The  population  will  be 
educated  back  to  their  old  home — the  soil.  The  great 
political  word  of  the  twentieth  century  will  be  empires — 
Russian  and  American.  They  will  achieve  unity  brutally, 
to  the  great  grief  of  those  professors  of  love  who  have  made 
a  private  luxury  of  brotherhood  instead  of  getting  on  the 
road  with  it  ahead  of  the  professors  of  lyddite.  But,  as  we 
have  so  often  seen  in  history,  the  unity  of  the  peace  of  the 
people  will  follow  the  unity  of  brutality — Pax  Romana, 
Pax  Brittanica,  Pax  Humana.  As  at  the  beginning  of  the 
last  era,  so  at  the  beginning  of  this,  imperialism  will  build 
the  roads  on  which  will  travel  the  new  gospel  that  will 
destroy  imperialism. 


VOL.  II — II 


1 62  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

The  winter  home  was  now  fixed  in  Boston,  as  the 
sons  were  at  Harvard  University.  Mr.  Lloyd  was  thus 
temporarily  separated  from  his  "Study."  "But  he 
says  he  misses  here  his  'outer  brain,'"  said  a  Boston 
news-letter.  "By  this  original  expression  he  designates 
his  collection  of  books,  papers,  and  notes  of  all  sorts, 
which  in  years  past  he  has  gathered  about  him  in  his 
Western  home. "  He  missed  as  well  his  chosen  field 
of  local  endeavour,  Chicago.  He  wrote  to  a  friend: 
"Your  reluctance  to  call  me  a  Bostonian  is  no  greater 
than  mine  to  be  called  one.  I  would  never  be  willing 
to  leave  Chicago  for  any  arena  smaller."  Thus  un- 
settled, he  turned  again  to  his  journeys  to  gather 
hints  for  "a  way  out."  The  most  urgent  call  was 
to  Switzerland. 

In  1888,  I  received  from  a  friend  then  travelling  in 
Switzerland  a  letter  telling  me  of  the  initiative  and  refer- 
endum [wrote  W.  G.  Eggleston].  Believing  that  I  had 
something  that  was  new  to  Mr.  Lloyd,  I  took  the  letter  to 
him.  "Yes,"  he  said,  "I  have  heard  of  it  and  some  day 
I  'm  going  to  Switzerland  to  see  about  it. " 

That  day  had  now  come.  The  Americans  had  lost 
control  of  their  government;  theirs  was,  he  said,  "a 
government  of  representatives,  by  representatives,  for 
representatives."  With  the  judgment  of  a  skilled 
social  reporter,  he  realised  that  here  in  old  Switzer- 
land, as  in  youthful  New  Zealand,  was  economic  news. 

Switzerland  is  in  a  very  important  way  a  more  timely 
example  for  us  than  New  Zealand;  while  the  New  Zea- 
land policy  is  more  advanced,  the  Swiss  is  more  demo- 
cratic. More  has  been  done  in  New  Zealand,  but  in 
Switzerland  more  has  been  done  by  the  people.  .  .  .  My 
point  is  not  to  present  the  Swiss  people  as  a  perfect  demo- 


"In  the  Rapids  of  a  New  Era"       163 

cracy  .  .  .  but  to  give  a  picture  of  a  people  really  deciding 
for  themselves,  whether  they  decide  rightly  or  not.  .  .  . 
When  a  Switzer  has  nothing  else  to  do,  he  whittles  on  the 
Constitution. 

Not  only  was  the  story  needed  by  the  Americans  but 
by  the  world  at  large,  absorbed  as  it  was  in  the  prob1ems 
presented  by  the  private  ownership  of  public  utilities. 
Switzerland  showed  the  only  instance  where  an  entire 
nation  had  by  wholly  democratic  processes,  by  debate 
and  mandate,  taken  possession  of  such  property.  This 
"hoary  democracy, "  he  said,  leads  the  world  in  keeping 
balanced,  in  the  political  field,  the  respective  powers  of 
the  individual  and  of  organisation,  though  it  applies 
the  secret  nowhere  else  in  its  life.  Early  in  1901,  he 
sailed  on  his  new  quest,  "a  study  of  Alpine  democracy 
—the  Alpine  glow!"  He  was  also  to  get  material  for 
his  second  book  on  co-operation. 

...  I  want  to  get  the  latest  information  about  co-oper- 
ation [he  wrote  to  Holyoake],  for  a  book  which  I  want  to  put 
out,  to  induce  the  American  people  to  enter  this  path  of 
private  democracy  complementing  the  political  one.  .  .  . 
I  have  little  hopes  of  the  success  of  political  democracy 
unless  there  exists  among  the  people  a  thorough  appreciation 
of  private  democracy  based  on  their  practical  experience 
and  success  in  it.  I  hope  to  contribute  some  facts  and 
inspiration  to  our  people  along  both  lines  of  social  effort. 
I  believe  that  when  the  people  of  America  begin  to  move, 
they  will  move  with  great  rapidity,  huge  energy,  and  with 
corresponding  success ;  if  they  are  going  to  realise  this  they 
must  move  along  both  lines — the  lines  of  co-operation  and 
democracy. 

On  the  steamer  was  the  millionaire,  Levi  Z.  Leiter, 
and  he  and  Lloyd  had  good  talks  as  the  hours  spun 


1 64  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

slowly  into  days.  He  said  to  Mr.  Leiter  that  men  of 
his  class  whose  fortune  had  been  made  a  generation 
ago  "in  what  is  known  as  legitimate  business"  were 
making  a  fatal  mistake  in  allowing  themselves  to  be 
identified  with  the  criminal  rich.  "You  are  entirely 
right,"  answered  Mr.  Leiter,  "but  then — the  invest- 
ments these  men  have  to  offer  are  very  attractive." 
In  commenting  on  this  Mr.  Lloyd  said  that  this  avarice 
of  the  "eminently  respectable"  makes  them  the  most 
dangerous  class,  since  they  make  the  market  for  the 
criminals  who  bribe  and  despoil.  He  wrote  to  Mr. 
Bowles  (1901): 

The  recent  Devil's  Dance  on  the  stock  exchange  is  the 
first  of  a  series  of  At  Homes  which  my  pet  John  D.  Rocke- 
feller is  going  to  give  the  people  of  this  country.  His  career 
on  the  oil  exchanges  of  Pennsylvania  was  a  sort  of  dress 
rehearsal  for  it.  There  never  has  been  a  speculative  orgy 
like  that  in  the  oil  regions.  The  South  Sea  Bubble  was 
nothing  in  comparison,  though  of  course  famous  while  this  is 
generally  unknown.  It  has  occurred  to  me  that  an  article 
or  two  in  the  Republican  telling  this  oil  exchange  story  with 
special  reference  to  its  applicability  and  warning  now 
would  .  .  .  perhaps  do  a  great  deal  of  good.  .  .  .  Mr.  L. 
Z.  Leiter  was  with  me  on  the  Furst  Bismarck  and  he  tells 
me  that  Johnnie  now  controls  a  thousand  millions  of 
banking  capital.  This  capital,  as  the  recent  episode  in 
Wall  Street  shows,  he  is  going  to  use  with  all  his  skill 
as  a  speculative  bludgeon,  and  you  can  find  the  financial 
history  of  Wall  Street  and  the  speculative  public  for  the 
next  ten  years  written  in  advance  in  the  story  of  the  ruin 
of  Pennsylvania  in  the  same  field.  I  was  going  to  pro- 
pose this  to  my  friend  Van  Benthuysen  of  the  World,  but 
I  think  the  articles  would  have  more  effect  on  public 
opinion  if  done  by  the  Republican — and  that  is  what  I  am 
gunning  for. 


"In  the  Rapids  of  a  New  Era"       165 

Landing  in  Genoa,  Mr.  Lloyd  studied  various  parts  of 
the  Italian  socialist  and  co-operative  fields.  Some  of  his 
personal  experiences  he  wrote  home  to  please  his  parents : 

Just  as  I  arrived  in  Rome,  a  bill  was  presented  to  the 
Italian  Parliament  for  compulsory  arbitration  based  on  my 
account  in  C.  W.  S.,1  and  going  to  see  a  prominent  man 
there  on  another  matter  I  found  that  he  had  W.  A.  C.'  on 
the  shelf  behind  me,  and  had  just  published  a  review  of  C. 
W.  S.  in  the  principal  Italian  review.  However,  you  would 
get  a  very  wrong  impression  if  you  thought  my  path  was 
usually  strewn  with  roses  in  that  fashion.  On  the  contrary, 
I  was  actually  turned  very  brusquely  out  of  a  man's  house 
in  Bologna,  as  a  beggar,  together  with  a  highly  respectable 
professor  of  that  ancient  city  whom  I  had  taken  along  as  an 
interpreter.  The  gentleman  whose  letter  of  introduction 
I  bore  in  asking  my  inhospitable  host  to  assist  me  (in  my 
investigations)  used  a  word  which  in  Italian  is  sometimes 
employed  in  begging.  With  true  Italian  precipitation  my 
friend  did  not  stop  even  to  see  who  the  letter  was  from,  but 
showed  us  to  the  door  as  if  afraid  we  would  insist  immedi- 
ately on  picking  his  pockets.  But  he  was  abject  enough 
the  next  morning,  and  was  my  slave  every  minute  of  the 
rest  of  my  stay.  .  .  . 

In  Switzerland  he  laid  the  foundation  for  his  book, 
and  attended  the  international  conference  for  labour 
legislation  in  Berne.  Passing  into  Germany,  then  to 
Belgium  and  England,  he  surveyed  their  socialist  and 
co-operative  movements.  He  wrote  to  his  friend,  Pro- 
fessor Stephan  Bauer,  of  Basle: 

I  was  very  glad  to  hear  from  you.  I  count  you  as  one  of 
my  permanent  acquisitions  in  Europe,  if  you  will  not  resent 
a  proprietary  phrase  which  asserts  no  title  but  that  of 
affection. 

1  A  Country  Without  Strikes.  *  Wealth  Against  Commonwealth. 


i66  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

I  had  a  great  time  in  Germany,  seeing  and  tapping 
Bebel,  Bernstein,  Arons,  Singer,  the  Vorwaerts  people, 
Kautsky,  Barth,  Cruger,  Haulsitka,  and  a  lot  more.  In 
Belgium,  especially  at  Ghent,  is  the  most  remarkable  move- 
ment I  have  seen  anywhere.  The  trade-unions,  socialists, 
co-operators,  and  the  people  generally,  all  united  in  one 
movement,  with  stores,  bakeries,  art  studios,  pharmacies, 
doctors,  newspapers,  party  machinery,  social  organisa- 
tions, etc.,  for  the  avowed  purpose  of  establishing  a  better 
world!  ...  It  is  in  advance  of  everything  anywhere 
else.  .  .  .  Some  of  the  German  Social  Democratic  people 
are  considering  the  publication  of  some  of  my  books.  I 
would  much  like  to  have  you  do  the  translating. 

As  to  the  prospects  for  the  success  or  failure  of  the  Labour 
Legislation  Branch  for  which  you  ask  my  opinion,  I  can 
only  apply  to  that  the  rule  I  use  for  my  own  consolation  as 
to  all  "the  best  laid  plans  of  mice  or  men,"  in  which  I 
embark  my  hopes  or  energies.  We  can  but  do  that  which 
seems  to  fall  to  us  to  be  done  and  in  that  do  our  best  and  let 
the  results  take  care  of  themselves.  I  do  not  believe  that 
any  intelligent  effort  is  wasted  though  it  may  easily  be  that 
we  never  see  the  fruit.  The  American  and  English  working 
men  have  troubles  of  their  own,  and  have  little  energy  to 
spend  on  any  other  thing  than  getting  alive  through  to-day 
for  to-morrow. 

He  also  met  Alfred  von  der  Leyen  of  Berlin,  Hugo 
Poetzsch,  "who  can  open  all  socialist  doors  in  Ger- 
many," Milliet,  "the  best  informed  man  in  Switzer- 
land," Greulich,  veteran  of  the  Swiss  working  men's 
movement,  Hans  Mueller,  head  of  the  Swiss  co-opera- 
tors, Anseele,  "the  greatest,  tho  the  quietest  man  in 
Europe."  In  England  he  found  the  co-operators 
enthusiastically  adding  to  their  advance  a  system  of 
making  themselves  co-operative  landlords,  and  he  was 
present  and  spoke  at  the  opening  of  their  first  estate, 


"In  the  Rapids  of  a  New  Era"       167 

the  Baling  Tenants,  Limited.    He   had   a   talk   with 
William  T.  Stead,  on  Budget  night. 

.  .  .  He  called  at  Mowbray  House  [wrote  Stead1],  and 
I  had  the  pleasure  of  renewing  the  acquaintance  of  one 
of  the  most  charming,  cultured,  and  thoughtful  of  those 
Americans  who  have  devoted  their  lives  to  the  study 
of  the  social  evolution  of  moral  society.  We  were  both 
eight  years  older  than  when  we  last  met,  and  greyer,  if 
not  wiser.  I  was  delighted  to  see  Mr.  Lloyd  and  to  hear 
from  his  own  lips  the  ripened  conclusions  at  which  he 
had  arrived  after  much  wandering  to  and  fro  over  the 
whole  earth. 

"What  is  your  hope  in  America?"  said  I,  going  to  the 
centre  of  things  at  a  bound. 

"I  am  at  a  loss,"  said  Mr.  Lloyd,  "as  to  the  position  of 
affairs  in  America.  I  see  no  light  anywhere  on  the  Ameri- 
can horizon.  The  situation  ...  is  so  perplexing,  and  in 
many  respects  so  hopeless,  that  I  came  over  to  Europe  in 
order  to  see  whether  from  the  outside  I  could  get  a  view- 
point which  would  enable  me  to  form  a  clearer  idea  as  to  the 
probable  course  of  events.  ..." 

"What  is  the  net  result?"  I  said. 

"It  seems  to  me,"  said  he,  "that  we  are  entering  upon  a 
new  era.  The  expansion  of  American  trade  is  going  to  be 
the  great  phenomenon  of  the  immediate  future.  Our  indus- 
tries, organised  as  they  have  never  been  before,  directed  by 
men  of  great  capacity,  audacity,  and  ambition,  will  under- 
take the  direction  of  the  productive  capacity  of  the  world. 
What  has  occurred  or  what  is  about  to  occur  reminds  me  of 
what  happened  in  your  own  country  when  you  struck  down 
the  Dutch  on  the  seas,  andimade  yourselves  the  great  traders 
of  the  world.  The  expansion  of  England  which  took  place 
in  the  over-sea  trade  is  now  going  to  take  place  in  America, 
under  different  conditions.  We  have  been  training  for  it 

1  Review  of  Reviews,  May  15,  1901. 


1 68  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

for  some  time,  but  the  American  trust  has  now  filled  its 
arsenals,  disciplined  its  armies,  and  is  now  about  to  set  the 
pace  to  the  world  in  all  matters  of  industry  and  production. 
I  do  not  see  what  there  is  that  is  going  to  stand  up  against 
it.  On  the  contrary,  it  seems  to  me  that  the  producers  of 
the  old  world  will  prefer  to  stand  in  with  the  trust  rather 
than  to  oppose  it.  The  Napoleons  of  industry  who  are 
about  to  undertake  the  conquest  of  the  old  world  will  do 
like  the  other  Napoleons,  and  embody  in  their  conquering 
legions  as  allies  the  best  of  your  men.  But  the  direction, 
the  ideas,  the  control,  will  be  in  the  hands  of  the  American 
trust.  The  trust  is  virtually  supreme  in  the  United  States, 
and  when  it  has  achieved  the  economic  subjection  of  the  old 
world  it  may  consolidate  the  plutocratic  system,  against 
which  the  American  people  may  be  powerless.  Yes,  the 
evolution  of  the  American  trust  has  become  a  great  inter- 
national and  European  question.  In  Germany  they  are 
very  uneasy.  Things  are  bad  there,  and  in  England  also 
you  are  likely  to  have  a  difficult  time." 

"Yes, "  I  said,  "  and  therein  lies  the  hope  of  the  situation, 
for  in  the  immediate  future  the  road  to  salvation  lies  along 
the  path  of  tribulation.  ..." 

"In  America  that  road  seems  to  be  closed  to  us  at 
present,"  said  Mr.  Lloyd.  "We  have  a  surplus  of  fifteen 
millions  with  a  much  greater  potential  surplus.  .  .  .  Never- 
theless, in  no  country  but  America  ...  is  there  such  a 
well-organised,  vigorously  sustained  campaign  against  this 
malady  of  the  modern  state  as  there  is  among  the  band  of 
thinkers  and  reformers  who  are  combating  the  evil  in  the 
United  States. " 

"And  how  do  you  find  things  in  England?"  I  asked. 

"In  the  House  of  Commons  there  are  a  few  individuals 
who  have  their  minds  open  to  the  light  of  the  coming  day, 
among  whom  I  should  put  John  Burns  very  nearly  in  the 
first  rank.  Burns  impresses  me  much.  He  will  go  far. 
His  career  has  only  begun.  In  the  near  future  he  will  play 
a  great  part." 


"In  the  Rapids  of  a  New  Era"        169 

"...  And  what  do  you  think  of  the  Liberal  Party?1* 

"It  has  perished, "  he  said,  "with  the  fulfilment  of  its  old 
ideals.  What  is  called  the  Liberal  Party  has  no  mandate, 
has  no  programme,  and  therefore  has  no  courage  and  no 
influence.  It  seems  to  me  that  it  was  buried  with  Mr. 
Gladstone,  and  it  will  know  no  resurrection.  The  future 
lies  with  other  men  and  other  ideals." 

"If  you  see  no  light  in  Westminster,"  I  said,  "what  do 
you  think  about  Spring  Gardens?" 

"Yes,"  said  Mr.  Lloyd,  "the  London  County  Council  is 
doing  good  work ;  but  what  fills  me  with  the  greatest  hope  is 
the  progress  of  the  co-operative  movement  in  England. 
That  seems  to  me  one  of  the  greatest  things  of  our  time — 
the  most  hopeful,  the  most  promising.  .  .  . " 

Stead  then  remarked  that  Lloyd's  view  of  the  trusts 
was  necessarily  gloomy,  since  should  they  prove  that 
great  national  industries  could  be  controlled  by  a  few 
individuals  the  chief  practical  argument  against  so- 
cialism would  disappear.  Mr.  Lloyd  objected,  how- 
ever, saying  that  the  trust  proved  only  that  a  few  men 
had  the  organising  genius,  but  not  that  the  people  as  a 
whole  were  capable  of  administering  them. 

"But,"  he  went  on  to  say,  "I  think  your  co-operative 
movement  in  England  does  prove  that  the  people  have  got 
the  capacity,  and  it  is  to  my  mind  the  brightest  point  in  the 
whole  dark  horizon.  I  was  particularly  struck,  for  instance, 
with  the  scheme  of  co-operative  housing  which  has  been 
elaborated  by  your  co-operators,  and  which,  I  believe,  is  to 
be  publicly  inaugurated  this  very  week.  .  .  .  No  doubt  you 
are  all  interested  in  the  housing  schemes  of  the  London 
County  Council;  but  there  is  something  infinitely  more 
attractive,  to  my  mind,  in  a  co-operative  system  which 
enables  working  men  to  build  their  houses  and  to  become 
their  own  landlords,  without  coming  upon  the  rates,  and 
without  establishing  an  antagonism  of  interests  between  the 


170  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

municipal  landlord  and  the  individual  tenant.  There  is  no 
social  experiment  the  development  of  which  I  shall  watch 
with  greater  interest,  than  this  co-operative  building  scheme 
of  Mr.  Vivian's.  It  seems  to  me  that  it  is  along  such  lines 
that  the  progress  to  a  happier  state  of  society  is  to  be 
secured. " 

...  I  gently  chaffed  Mr.  Lloyd  for  the  excessive  admir- 
ation of  the  New  Zealanders.  "You  put  no  vinegar  in  your 
salad,"  said  I. 

"Well,"  said  Mr.  Lloyd,  "when  I  wrote  Wealth  Against 
Commonwealth,  I  came  to  the  conclusion  that  I  would  not 
resort  to  the  ordinary  devices  of  book-makers  by  putting  in 
qualifying  words  which  blunt  the  sharp  outlines  of  the 
salient  facts.  I  was  determined  I  would  tell  the  truth 
exactly  as  I  saw  it.  .  .  ." 

"And  so,"  I  answered,  "as  you  painted  the  devil  jet 
black,  you  .  .  .  painted  New  Zealand  as  an  archangel 
white  as  snow. " 

"I  painted  it  as  I  found  it, "  said  Mr.  Lloyd.  " The  book 
is  the  expression  of  the  impressions  left  upon  my  mind  as  the 
result  of  a  long,  painstaking  examination  of  New  Zealand 
as  it  is  to-day.  It  is  a  picture  not  without  shadows.  There 
are  economic  difficulties  ahead,  the  chief  of  which  may  be 
traced  to  the  excessive  dependence  of  New  Zealand  upon  the 
English  market  and  the  English  Stock  Exchange,  but  take 
it  all  in  all,  the  chief  doubt  is  whether  there  can  be  any 
sequel  worthy  to  follow  so  splendid  a  first  volume.  ..." 

Mr.  Lloyd  sailed  home  in  April,  lacking  the  full 
material  for  his  books.  Few  who  met  him  divined  that 
under  his  charming  easy  grace  there  lay  a  depression 
that  was  making  work  almost  impossible.  A  friend 
said:  "As  soon  as  I  saw  him  I  knew  that  the  main- 
spring was  broken."  He  himself  felt  that  he  should 
not  live  more  than  two  years,  and  to  his  sister,  strain- 
ing every  nerve  to  save  the  lives  of  her  children,  he 


"  In  the  Rapids  of  a  New  Era"        171 

spoke  of  the  strange  contrast  between  her  efforts  and 
his  longing  that  life  should  end.  "For  weeks,"  he 
wrote  to  her,  "I  have  been  swimming  in  a  shoreless 
ocean,  but  I  think  I  see  land  at  last."  It  was  his 
fervent  prayer  that  the  strength  wasted  in  this  un- 
necessary battle  might  in  some  way  be  given  him  again 
for  his  work.  Thus  he  pushed  bravely  onward  to  the 
immediate  tasks,  "the  day's  work,"  which  such  a 
nature  feels  that  it  must,  in  bare  justice,  render  to 
society. 

I  am  not  fit  to  write,  I  do  not  do  the  things  I  ought  to  do 
to  live.  ...  I  have  come  back  from  my  European  trip  full 
of  new  ideas  and  yet  lacking  the  energy  to  execute  them. 
By  the  way  here  is  an  entry  I  made  yesterday  in  my  note- 
book— Tact  is  knowing  what  you  can  do  and  fact  is  doing  it. 
Well,  I  seem  to  have  the  tact,  but  the  fact  eludes  me  so  far. 
The  situation  has  grown  so  colossal  and  so  extraordinary. 
Every  socialistic  and  populistic  movement  growing  less, 
while  the  capitalistic  grows  greater.  I  am  thinking  of 
going  next  week  to  a  convention  in  Indianapolis  to  unite 
the  various  sections  of  the  socialist  party — a  forlorn  hope, 
I  fear. 

In  this  year  he  was  arranging  a  disposal  of  his  prop- 
erty. He  was  often  picturesquely  but  inaccurately 
described  as  a  "millionare  socialist."  He  was,  in- 
deed, a  man  of  means,  "unfortunately  of  the  capitalist 
class, "  he  once  said.  A  clearness  of  vision  characterised 
him  on  this  side  of  life  as  on  others.  He  respected 
certain  forms  of  property,  the  desire  for  which  was, 
he  declared,  a  universal  human  attribute.  "Every 
citizen  must  have  his  field,"  he  said.  His  business 
friends  declare  that  he  possessed  extraordinary  capacity 
for  far-sighted  investment,  was  familiar  with  the  intri- 


172  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

cacies  of  stocks  and  the  market,  and  had  he  chosen  to 
devote  to  the  pursuit  of  money  his  entire  effort,  might 
have  won  an  immense  possession.  After  leaving  jour- 
nalism, however,  his  income  from  the  Tribune  stock, 
and  an  annuity  accruing  to  his  wife  from  her  father's 
estate,  assured  the  family  independence,  and  he  never 
again  engaged  in  money-getting.  His  books  brought 
no  profit,  and  were  copyrighted  merely  to  protect  him 
against  alterations  and  unauthorised  and  garbled  re- 
prints. Whereas  it  is  often  rumoured  of  financial 
editors  that  they  acquire  a  fortune  in  the  course  of 
their  professional  work,  "Mr.  Lloyd,"  said  Robert 
Patterson,  managing  editor  of  the  Chicago  Tribune, 
"was  almost  the  solitary  exception  in  that  respect." 

The  junction  in  him  of  radicalism  and  wealth  made 
an  occasional  critic  say  that  he  was  not  consistent. 
When  confronted  by  Joseph  Medill  with  this  point, 
he  declared  that  he  would  be  perfectly  willing  to  give 
up  his  share  ''when  the  others  did"  Indeed  theories 
advocating  a  more  even  distribution  of  opportunities 
and  the  abolition  of  the  profit  system  came  with  a 
good  grace  from  one  with  profits  to  sacrifice,  and  who 
with  every  heart-beat  was  giving  the  result  of  his  op- 
portunities for  the  benefit  of  all.  His  social  theories 
carried  forward  meant  what  would  seem  to  many  like 
self-sacrifice;  not  so  to  him,  who  regarded  the  good  of 
all  as  bringing  the  greatest  good  to  the  individual.  So 
highly  did  he  value  property  that  he  was  scrupulously 
careful  about  expenditure.  When  he  gave,  it  was  with 
the  maximum  of  conscientious  thought.  In  his  con- 
ceptions of  the  financial  side  of  the  labour  movement 
he  was  as  democratic  as  elsewhere.  He  felt  strongly 
that  it  must  be  self-supporting,  repeatedly  pointing  out 
that  subsidised  causes  did  not  live.  "The  people  must 


"  In  the  Rapids  of  a  New  Era  "       173 

create  their  own  success,"  he  said.  Therefore,  while 
he  never  ceased  to  give,  it  was  usually  in  the  form  of 
guidance  and  information.  With  any  material  help, 
there  came  always  the  maximum  gift,  himself.  He 
spent  all  the  revenue  possible  gathering  and  making 
into  books  the  helpful  facts,  promoted  investigation 
by  others,  and  sent  literature  into  all  countries. 

In  one  of  his  notes,  he  jotted  down  an  analysis  of 
property  as  of  two  kinds,  that  made  by  the  individual 
alone  which  was  sacred  to  him,  and  that  of  social 
origin  bringing  the  power  to  control  others.  In  his 
own  life,  he  apparently  made  some  such  distinction, 
since  all  the  small  sums  which  he  received  for  articles 
or  the  fees  occasionally  accepted  for  lectures — all 
money  earned — he  kept  in  a  separate  bank  account, 
and  used  in  precious  personal  ways,  as  in  gifts  to  his 
wife  or  mother.  All  the  other  property  he  voluntarily 
devoted  as  far  as  possible  to  social  service.  He  owned 
besides  the  Tribune  stock  and  the  Sakonnet  home,  a 
strip  of  Winnetka  shore,  the  gift  of  his  father-in-law, 
a  small  farm,  and  sixteen  acres  in  63d  Street,  Chicago. 
The  real  estate  was  unproductive,  and  for  the  last  two 
decades  of  his  life  meant  a  burden  of  taxes  and  assess- 
ments. In  the  nineties  he  was  further  embarrassed 
by  the  Tribune's  ceasing  to  pay  dividends  because  of 
its  building  operations.  This  prolonged  stress  he  called 
his  "forty  years  in  the  financial  wilderness, "  and  during 
it  his  plans  for  good  stood  in  abeyance.  "Until  I 
endow  myself,"  he  said,  "I  shall  not  be  able  to  do  a 
fractional  part  of  what  I  would  like  to  do."  He  was 
now  in  1901  contemplating  giving  away  his  Chicago 
acres  for  social  service.  He  considered  endowing  a 
chair  at  Harvard,  following  some  of  the  lines  of  work 
at  Tuskegee  and  Hampton,  which  he  considered  the 


174  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

best  educational  institutions  in  the  country.  "I 
often  wish  white  boys  had  as  good  a  chance. "  He  now 
wrote  to  President  Eliot  of  Harvard  University: 

Will  you  allow  me  to  write  you  of  a  plan  which  has  been 
forming  itself  in  my  mind  for  a  school  which  would  apply 
the  principles  of  manual  training  in  the  field  of  agriculture? 
The  work  would  be  something  like  that  which  is  done  by  the 
garden  schools  of  Europe.  You  perhaps  know  the  inter- 
esting report  on  this  subject  which  has  been  issued  by  the 
Bureau  of  Education  in  Washington.  The  schools  for 
Negroes  and  Indians  at  Tuskegee  and  Hampton  (Virginia) 
are  also  illustrations  of  what  I  refer  to.  Our  State  Agri- 
cultural Universities  also  do  something  of  the  same  work, 
but  not  in  exactly  the  direction  which  seems  to  me  would  be 
most  useful.  They  are  what  might  be  called  "trade" 
schools — to  fit  pupils  for  the  trade  of  farming.  It  seems  to 
me  what  is  needed  also  is  a  school  or  college  which  shall 
show  how  horticulture,  agriculture,  sylviculture,  etc.,  can 
be  made  adjuncts  of  the  general  culture  of  our  schools. 

I  am  the  owner  of  some  valuable  property  in  Chicago, 
unimproved  but  in  the  midst  of  an  improved  district,  with 
not  even  a  mortgage  on  it ;  and  some  unimproved  property 
suburban  to  Chicago,  near  to  the  Chicago  &  North- Western 
Railroad.  I  have  thought  that  possibly  I  might  give  this 
as  an  endowment  for  the  establishment  of  such  a  school  as  I 
have  hinted  at  above  and  that  I  might  do  this  on  the  lines 
followed  as  I  understand  by  Dr.  Pearson,  in  some  of  his 
recent  gifts.  That  is,  that  the  college  receiving  the  endow- 
ment might  pay  me  a  fair  annuity  for  my  life,  calculated 
on  the  present  value  of  the  property,  taking  the  property  at 
once  in  fee.  The  annuity  should  be,  of  course,  a  fair  sum 
for  the  actual  value  so  conveyed  from  the  annuitant's  point 
of  view,  so  that  so  far  as  that  was  concerned,  there  will  be 
no  further  obligation  on  my  part;  but  I  would  also,  in 
consideration  of  this  annuity,  devote  myself  to  such  work 
in  the  organisation  of  this  department  as  you  might  wish. 


"  In  the  Rapids  flf  a  New  Era  "        175 

I  would  visit  the  principal  schools  and  colleges  here  and 
abroad,  in  which  such  instruction  is  given,  paying  my  own 
expenses,  and  gather  information  as  a  starting  point  from 
which  to  proceed  with  the  plans  for  the  organisation  of  the 
school.  I  would  then,  after  you  had  decided  as  to  what 
plan  of  organisation  to  adopt,  give  such  of  my  time  and 
efforts  to  the  organisation  and  promotion  of  the  school  as 
was  agreeable  to  you.  You  would,  of  course,  get  your  own 
information  as  to  the  value  of  the  property  in  question.  As 
to  that  in  Chicago,  I  should  say  that  the  value  was  several 
hundred  thousand  dollars  (three,  or  more),  and  that  of  the 
suburban  property,  though  much  less  at  the  present  time, 
likely  to  advance  to  fifty  thousand  dollars  or  more. 

I  write  you  this  tentatively,  to  draw  from  you  an  expres- 
sion of  opinion  as  to  how  it  impresses  you. 

Faithfully  yours, 

H.  D.  LLOYD. 

To  which  President  Eliot  replied: 

ASTICOU,  MAINE,  10  August,  1901. 
DEAR  SIR: 

Among  the  letters  which  I  seem  to  have  reserved  for 
answering  in  vacation  is  one  from  you  dated  May  22d,  at 
No.  95  Mt.  Vernon  Street,  Boston.  .  .  . 

I  availed  myself  of  an  early  opportunity  to  consult  our 
Corporation  about  the  enquiry  you  made  therein.  I  beg  to 
say  now  that  the  Corporation  felt  unable  to  co-operate  with 
you  in  the  proposed  undertaking,  (i)  because  they  do  not 
invest  in  unimproved  real  estate;  (2)  because  they  would 
not  know  how  to  determine  the  annuity  which  ought  to  be 
paid  to  you  as  the  annual  value  of  the  specific  unimproved 
real  estate  described  in  your  letter;  (3)  because  they  are 
completely  uninformed  as  to  your  fitness  for  the  task  of 
deciding  on  the  organisation  of  the  proposed  school;  and 
finally  because  the  kind  of  school  which  you  seem  to  have 
in  mind  does  not  appear  to  them  to  be  a  part  of  a  university's 


176  Henry  Ddtnarest  Lloyd 

work,  but  rather  of  secondary  school  work.  For  these 
reasons  I  am  obliged  to  say  that  our  Corporation,  so  far  as 
they  can  gather  your  intentions  from  your  letter  of  May 
22d,  would  not  be  inclined  to  take  part  in  your  undertaking. 
You  ask  for  my  opinion  in  the  matter,  and  I  venture  to 
add  that  the  best  place  for  putting  into  execution  your 
general  idea  would  seem  to  me  to  be  a  good  normal  school 
to  which  you  would  offer  a  definite  sum  of  money,  say 
$400,000,  the  income  of  which  should  be  devoted  to  pro- 
viding for  the  pupils  of  the  school  practical  instruction  in 
horticulture,  arboriculture,  and  landscape  gardening. 

Very  truly  yours, 
CHARLES  W.  ELIOT. 

His  final  plan  was  to  bequeath  his  Winnetka  land 
for  a  public  park,  and  to  donate  the  sixteen  acres  in 
Chicago  to  the  people  as  a  place  where  they  might 
enjoy  absolute  freedom  of  speech.  One  section  of  the 
Chicago  land  was  to  be  reserved  for  children,  another 
for  a  public  building,  while  the  major  part  was  to  be  an 
open-air  forum.  But  on  finding  himself  suddenly  con- 
fronting death  before  his  children  had  inherited  the 
estates  coming  to  them,  he  made  a  short  will,  on  his 
death-bed,  leaving  all  at  the  disposal  of  his  wife. 

In  the  fall  of  1901  Mr.  Lloyd  faced  a  third  winter 
away  from  his  Winnetka  study.  In  September,  how- 
ever, he  embarked  on  a  lecture  tour  arranged  by  the 
university  association  of  Chicago,  before  the  Economic 
Leagues  now  formed  in  the  principal  cities  of  the  far 
West,  where  a  movement  was  being  made  to  inaugurate 
reforms,  with  Newest  England  as  a  basis.  As  a  cam- 
paign document,  a  cheaper  edition  of  his  book  was 
called  for. 

I  would  myself  be  very  glad  to  see  the  book  .  .  .  pub- 
lished at  any  reduced  price,  if  there  were  a  fair  prospect 


"In  the  Rapids  of  a  New  Era"        177 

that  that  would  result  in  wide  distribution.  I  am  perfectly 
willing  to  take  any  risks  with  regard  to  royalties,  for  I  have 
never  written  any  of  my  books  with  an  expectation  of  any 
profit. 

Starting  in  at  Los  Angeles  he  initiated  the  season's 
course.  He  was  much  impressed  by  the  promise  of  the 
Pacific. 

...  I  am  convinced  that  the  development  of  the  Pacific 
is  destined  to  go  forward  at  a  rate  which  will  astonish  the 
world.  The  rapidity  with  which  the  Atlantic  States  de- 
veloped is  no  indication  of  the  rapidity  with  which  the 
States  on  this  side  of  the  continent  will  forge  to  the  front 
within  the  next  few  years.  Here  across  the  Pacific  Ocean 
the  old  and  new  worlds  meet,  and  the  Pacific  is  destined 
within  the  course  of  a  few  years  to  become  one  vast  Medi- 
terranean Sea  teeming  with  the  commerce  of  millions.  The 
history  of  the  development  of  the  Pacific  will  show  some- 
thing entirely  new  and  unique  in  the  development  of  nations 
and  countries.  Even  those  who  live  here  and  are  eye  wit- 
nesses of  what  has  already  been  done  have  but  an  inade- 
quate conception  of  the  possibilities  of  the  country. x 

This  tour  was  supplemented  by  others  in  the  Eastern 
States  where  he  brought  the  last  word  of  the  people's 
achievements  abroad;  the  story  of  New  Zealand,  of 
co-operation  in  Italy,  and  of  "the  people's  perpetual 
constitutional  convention"  in  Switzerland;  of  the  mar- 
vellous organisation  of  the  German  socialist  party, — • 
Germany  was  the  one  spot  in  the  world,  he  said,  where 
one  might  expect  sensational  developments  at  any 
time — ;  of  Belgium's  more  perfect  form  of  socialism. 
At  the  last  lecture  of  the  year  he  was  given  an  ovation 
on  the  platform  of  old  Cooper  Union,  where,  as  a  youth 

1  From  an  interview  in  the  Seattle  Daily  Times,  October  12,  1901. 

VOL.  H — 12 


178  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

of  twenty- two,  he  had  stood  with  New  York's  grey- 
haired  leaders  in  reform. 

In  his  lectures  Mr.  Lloyd  added  the  charm  and  force 
of  his  personality  to  that  of  his  words,  and  more  nearly 
revealed  his  higher  thought  than  in  his  books.  They 
were  known  however  only  to  his  audiences  or  to  those 
who  read  certain  newspaper  reports.  He  made  no 
attempt  whatever  to  publish  them.  He  was  often 
called  the  Wendell  Phillips  of  the  labour  movement 
and  in  many  respects  the  parallel  held  good,  but  he 
was  far  more  a  writer  than  an  orator.  Although  he 
spoke  easily  and  eloquently  extemporaneously,  most 
of  his  speeches  were  prepared  without  pressure  in  the 
quiet  of  his  study,  and  expressed  his  thought  in  words 
chosen  with  consummate  skill.  With  an  enunciation 
not  always  clear  and  a  physique  too  delicate  for  robust 
delivery,  he  yet  held  audiences  in  intense  interest  and 
enthusiasm.  He  did  this  by  the  force  of  his  thought 
and  his  heart.  He  spoke  because  he  had  something  he 
must  say.  He  dared  to  tell  the  truth.  From  him  the 
people  had  the  joy  of  hearing  that  brave  demand  for 
justice  which  was  trembling  in  their  outraged  hearts. 
He  found  them  "hungry  for  information. "  In  a  happy 
hour,  he  gave  a  survey  of  problems  and  solutions, 
lightened  by  humour  and  human  touches,  all  so  simply 
done  that  few  realised  the  profundity  which  led  them 
to  the  core  of  the  question.  In  debate  and  discussion 
he  was  very  felicitous. 

Those  who  heard  him  for  the  first  time  [said  Daniel 
Kissam  Young]  were  surprised  at  his  low  voice  and  lack  of 
gesticulation,  but  in  a  few  minutes  he  won  his  audience, 
and  before  he  had  finished  he  was  sure  to  prove  himself  a 
true  orator  in  the  best  sense  of  the  word. 

He  made  a  second  journey  to  Europe  in  1902  to 


"In  the  Rapids  of  a  Nev  Era"       179 

complete  the  material  for  the  Swiss  book,  and  for  the 
new  book  on  co-operation,  stud^ng  meanwhile  such 
special  subjects  as  people's  banks  in  Italy,  Switzerland, 
and  Germany,  and  the  farmers*  sales  associations  in 
Germany  and  France.  As  he  journeyed,  he  told  the 
people  of  one  country  what  the  Bothers  were  doing,  and 
thus  spreading  news  of  progress  and  good  fellowship, 
became  a  messenger  of  progressive  internationalism. 
Next  to  Switzerland  his  closest  sti'ldy  was  of  the  people's 
movement  in  Belgium.  He  wa*s  exhilarated  by  the 
success  with  which  the  workers  >  had  there  organised 
themselves  as  co-operators,  trade-unionists,  socialists, 
and  practical  politicians  simultaneously  and  success- 
fully. The  story  of  this  was  to  form  a  main  part  of  the 
book  to  follow  that  on  Switzerland.  No  work  in  English 
described  this  movement. 

I  have  been  busy  ever  since  my  return  [he  wrote  to 
Vivian]  getting  together  my  co-operative  materials.  I 
think  I  see  an  opportunity  for  producing  a  book  which  will 
fill  a  place  no  other  book  has  sought  and  which  may  help  to 
restore  the  ideals  of  the  movement  to  their  sovereignty  in 
its  practical  manifestations. 

He  believed,  however,  that  the  international  develop- 
ment of  capitalism  was  going  to  make  all  constructive 
reform  slow  and  unsatisfactory  for  many  years  to  come. 
Particularly  was  this  true  of  the  republic  he  loved. 
At  the  turn  of  the  century,  he  had  given  up  all  hope 
that  anything  was  going  to  arrest  its  imperialisation. 
He  wrote  to  Moritz  Pinner  and  Edward  Everett  Hale 
in  1900: 

If  William  Lloyd  Garrison  or  Wendell  Phillips  were  to 
arrive  in  such  time  as  this,  their  attempt  to  free  the  slaves 
would  end  in  failure.  All  that  can  be  done  now  is  to  sow 


i8o  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

\ 

seed  where  ground  carji  be  found.  .  .  .  This  seed  .  .  .  will 
not  sprout  next  season  After  the  field  has  been  swept  by 
fire,  it  may  come  up  as  the  maples  and  birches  follow  the 
pine  of  the  primeval  forest !  For  the  present  our  lot  is  pine ! 

He  noticed  in  all  countries  that  the  tide  of  progress 
which  a  few  years  before  had  seemed  so  strong  was 
receding.  All  we  can  <j*o  is  to  wait,  he  said,  "the  tide 
will  surely  turn. "  He  Tote  to  Professor  Bauer  (1901) : 

The  Swiss  ideas  of  Direct  legislation  are  making  more 
progress  among  the  Americans  than  any  other  political 
novelties,  but  on  the  whole  the  reform  energy  here  is  ebbing, 
and  I  believe  the  same  to  be  true  the  world  over.  People 
are  sinking  into  a  coma,  which  is  I  predict  the  sleep  before  a 
very  great  awakening.  But  there  will  come  first  a  religious 
excitement  of  the  first  order,  whence  or  how  I  cannot  of 
course  pretend  to  tell,  but  I  am  no  observer  of  public  opinion 
if  this  is  not  hatching  everywhere. 

I  send  back  your  E.  W.  [Ethical  Worlds]  to-day  [he 
wrote  to  Mr.  Salter].  .  .  .  Coit1  I  recognise  as  a  leader, 
i.e.  a  leader  in  utterance.  The  real  leaders  are  events  and 
the  masses.  All  that  those  who  call  themselves  leaders — 
I  mean  who  are  called  leaders — can  do  is  to  give  phrase  and 
form  to  the  words  and  deeds  forced  out  of  the  people  by  the 
pressure  of  evils,  and  aspirations.  Events  in  this  greater 
sense  of  the  increase  of  pressure  and  aspiration  are  moving 
forward  with  a  rapidity  and  power  which  suggest  the  whirl 
of  the  sun-spots.  Economic  unity  is  achieving  itself — tho 
by  detestable  means — and  preparing  the  first  social  stage 
or  theatre  of  more  than  national  size  since  that  made  ready 
by  the  Roman  unity.  The  Roman  unity  gave  Christianity 
— the  highest  ideal  there  was — roads  and  open  doors. 
Behind  our  militant  commercialism — close  behind  it — 
moves  the  better  than  Christian  spirit  which  is  to  give  the 

1  Dr.  Stanton  Coit  of  the  West  London  Ethical  Society. 


"In  the  Rapids  of  a  New  Era"        181 

world  its  next  "new  era. "  I  believe  with  Coit  that  the  key- 
word of  that  new  era  is  democracy — a  red,  yellow,  white, 
black  democracy.  It  is  to  realise  another  instalment  of 
Dante's  ideal  of  the  fulfilment  of  the  destiny  of  humanity 
in  the  sum  total  of  the  fulfilment  of  all  the  faculties  of  all 
the  men  who  compose  humanity — a  statement  of  democracy 
made  six  hundred  years  ago  and  never  bettered. 

He  wrote  to  Mr.  Pinner: 

.  .  .  Since  we  have  last  exchanged  views  and  greetings 
I  have  been  in  Europe  making  the  acquaintance  of  some 
of  the  leading  socialists  of  Germany,  Italy,  Belgium,  and 
Switzerland.  The  more  I  see  of  Europe  the  more  of  an 
American  I  am.  There  is  a  belated  evolution  there  and 
even  their  remedies  are  behind  our  problems.  But  what 
our  remedy  is  to  be  I  confess  I  do  not  see.  I  cherish  a  hope 
that  we  may  have  the  wit  to  make  a  salad  of  all  the  good 
ideas  of  Europe  and  Australasia — their  co-operation,  so- 
cialism, trade-unionism,  land  resumption,  etc., — and  start 
where  they  have  stopped.  But  I  sometimes  think  I  see 
chilling  intimations  that  our  whole  destiny  is  to  exhaust 
ourselves  in  creating  another  of  the  vast  unities  called 
empires  which  by  bringing  the  peoples  together  in  masses 
promote  universal  brotherhood  tho  at  the  expense  of  the 
promoters. 

The  dominant  note  on  his  return  from  his  last  travels 
was  his  prediction  of  "the  Americanisation  of  the 
world."  For  reasons  of  economy  in  the  operation  of 
productive  industry,  he  believed,  as  he  had  told  Mr. 
Stead,  that  the  American  business  men  would  in  a 
short  time  take  possession  of  the  large  industries  of  the 
world.  The  Goths  and  Vandals  were  coming  again,  he 
said,  with  the  trust  and  the  long-distance  telephone. 
The  American  genius  for  conquest  surpassed  any  ever 
known.  This  conviction  appeared  in  his  correspon- 


1 82  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

dence  and  notes,  and  in  an  article,  "The  Next  World- 
Power.  " 

There  is  nowhere  else,  and  never  before  has  existed,  such 
a  set  of  men  as  the  present  rulers  of  American  industry — 
nowhere  men  so  strong,  keen,  unscrupulous,  nowhere  men 
with  such  a  nose  for  dollars,  nowhere  men  with  so  many 
dollars.  Europe  is  too  slow  and  too  poor  to  withstand 
them.  While  it  is  talking,  the  Americans  will  be  doing. 
The  consolidation  of  the  principal  European  industries  with 
the  American  will  be  accomplished,  while  the  Europeans 
are  still  talking  about  what  they  would  do  if  it  should  be 
attempted.  The  development  of  the  trusts  in  America  has 
been  only  the  rehearsal,  the  real  play  is  now  about  to  begin 
on  the  stage  of  the  world's  industry. 

He  wrote  to  Sir  William  Mather  (1902) : 

You  are  so  much  wiser  a  business  man  and  public  man 
than  I  that  nothing  could  excuse  my  presumption  in  the 
matter  I  am  going  to  suggest  except  that  it  relates  to  a 
subject  which  I  have  rather  made  a  specialty. 

Rather  a  formidable  opening!  I  take  it  for  granted  that 
American  capital  will  soon  flow  largely  into  investments  in 
English  railroads.  I  am  informed,  and  believe  that  Ameri- 
can methods  of  loading  and  hauling  freight,  etc.,  etc., 
managing  the  personnel,  etc.,  etc.,  will  permit  American 
railroad  capitalists  to  pay  present  prices  for  your  railroad 
stocks,  and  realise  handsome  profits  out  of  the  increased 
receipts  possible  through  their  control.  They  will  control 
of  course;  they  will  not  buy  for  the  present  investment 
value,  but  for  that  which  they  can  give.  Now  here  is  my 
point:  With  this  appearance  of  American  control  there 
will  appear  in  every  important  English  industry  new  com- 
petitors, in  alliance  with  the  American  control,  and  receiving 
from  it  secret  and  preferential  rates  which  will  enable  it  to 
drive  every  English  concern  it  attacks  out  of  existence.  .  .  . 


"In  the  Rapids  of  a  New  Era"       183 

No  civilisation  was  ever  looted  as  these  American  billion- 
aires— I  speak  advisedly,  Carnegie  told  a  friend  of  mine  he 
was  worth  $600,000,000 — will  loot  English  and  Continental 
wealth  when  they  perfect  their  schemes  for  the  control  of 
transportation  the  world  over.  .  .  . 

What  remedy  can  there  be  found  for  such  a  prospective 
looting  of  all  English  business  except  through  the  immediate 
nationalisation  of  your  railroads?  .  .  . 

But  let  me  now  say  one  thing  which  I  regard  as  of  the 
first  importance,  but  which  no  one  on  your  side  seems  to 
have  thought  of.  The  mischief  of  the  "  Americanisation  " 
I  speak  of  is  not  at  all  going  to  be  done  by  "the  conquest" 
of  you  English  by  us  Americans.  ...  It  is  going  to  be  with 
you,  as  with  us,  the  conquest  of  all  by  a  few — of  all  the 
English  and  American  people  by  a  few  Englishmen  and 
Americans.  .  .  . 

In  August,  1903,  he  wrote  what  were  to  prove  his 
last  words  on  this  matter: 

Up  to  date  these  men  have  had  little  reason  to  doubt  that 
they  know  the  American  people  better  than  the  reformers 
do.  They  push  forward  the  consummation  of  their  plans 
for  complete  control,  paying  public  opinion  the  delicate 
compliment  of  virtuous  and  perpetual  disclaimer.  They 
sit  at  ease  in  their  assurance  that  we  will  stand  the  thing, 
but  not  the  name.  All  this  raises  one  of  the  profoundest 
legal,  economic,  sociological,  and  constitutional  questions 
of  our  times.  This  complex  question  is  none  the  less  pro- 
found because  it  takes  this  simple  form:  Do  you  like  it? 

Such  was  the  impasse  into  which  he  saw  the  people 
of  the  world  driven.  "We  are  in  at  the  death  of  an 
expiring  principle,"  he  said.  "The  conspiracy  ends  in 
one,  and  one  cannot  conspire  with  himself."  On  this 
dark  horizon  of  property  become  an  international 
tyrant,  he  saw  two  lights  gleaming — the  international 


184  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

co-operative  and  socialist  movements.  In  quality  he 
said  they  were  tke  only  remedy  in  sight,  but  in  quantity 
pathetically  small.  Even  their  programmes  he  con- 
sidered were  not  yet  adequate  to  meet  this  imperial 
capitalism,  being  still  too  parochial  and  provincial. 
Europe  was  as  yet  standing  helpless  before  the  new 
problem  which  America  was  sending. 

After  talking  with  their  leading  men  [he  wrote  in  his 
notes],  one  sees  perfectly  well  that  no  solution  will  come  from 
them.  The  problem  has  outstripped  them.  America  has 
made  the  mischief,  she  must  find  the  remedy.  .  .  .  We 
must  have  a  new  socialistic  and  co-operative  impulse  and 
programme.  America  must  take  up  the  scattered  achieve- 
ments of  the  pioneers  of  other  countries  and  generalise  and 
fuse,  mould  and  quicken  them  into  a  form  as  broad  as  the 
evil  she  has  brought  on  the  world.  America  must  therefore 
produce  imperial  reformers,  as  well  as  imperial  monopolies 
and  tyrants.  The  task  then  before  the  American  reformer 
is  the  greatest  one  men  have  ever  faced. 

In  spite  of  moments  of  doubt,  his  faith  prevailed 
that  his  country  would  rise  equal  to  this  destiny. 
Before  the  disproportion  between  the  evil  and  the 
remedy,  he  took  refuge  in  the  American  ability  to  make 
short-cuts  out  of  any  difficulty. 

One  thing  which  keeps  up  my  courage  in  the  decidedly 
depressing  circumstances  of  our  present  social  situation  [he 
wrote  to  Charles  Contini,  Italian  co-operator],  is  that  I 
believe  that  our  practical  genius  will  always,  before  real 
destruction  comes,  cut  its  way  out  by  whatever  unconven- 
tional path.  .  .  .  There  are  many  millions  of  the  people 
who  feel  just  as  you  do  about  the  monopolies.  .  .  .  Their 
education  is  proceeding  rapidly.  They  do  not  move  be- 
cause they  do  not  yet  see  how  to  move.  Wiser  men  than 
they  are  in  doubt  as  to  the  precise  form  of  the  remedy,  are 


"  In  the  Rapids  of  a  New  Era  "       185 

they  not?  But  if  slow  to  begin,  they  will  I  believe  be  quick 
to  finish  once  they  set  to  work.  .  .  .  Almost  everywhere  in 
American  business  the  conspiracy  described  in  Wealth 
Against  Commonwealth  exists,  and  is  growing  worse. 

Writing  to  Professor  Frank  Parsons,  zealous  com- 
patriot, he  let  his  hopes  run  away  with  his  pen:  "  We 
have  much  to  learn  from  Europe,  but  we  are  going  to  re- 
ciprocate by  teaching  them  more  reform  in  some  coming 
quarter  of  an  hour  than  they  ever  guessed  in  all  their 
history. "  On  one  of  his  last  printed  pages  shines  the 
steady  light  of  his  larger  faith : 

The  hope  of  ages  for  a  better  world  is  becoming  the 
conscious  will  to  create  it  in  our  own  day.  .  .  .  Many  and 
powerful  are  the  "friends"  who  seek  to  turn  the  people  aside 
or  call  them  back.  They  love  the  people,  but  not  yet  can 
they  trust  the  people.  .  .  .  But  the  people  did  not  stop  in 
1776,  though  they  knew  every  republic  had  been  a  failure. 
They  press  forward,  not  to  love,  liberty,  and  equality,  but 
to  more  love,  more  liberty,  more  equality. 

His  watchful  eye  was  already  noting  unwonted  signs 
here  and  there,  which  showed,  he  said,  that  the  people 
were  losing  their  patience, — "little  cyclones  of  temper," 
he  called  them.  He  saw  that  something  was  stirring 
deep  down  in  the  places  where  the  people  do  their 
thinking.  The  breaking  point  was  coming.  "'When 
the  People  complain,  they  are  always  right.'  The 
People  are  complaining  again." 

But  none  of  the  books  which  he  was  designing  was 
to  be  on  this  subject  of  the  growing  tyranny.  When 
importuned  by  a  friend  to  write  one,  he  answered: 

Later  I  may  think  it  necessary  to  make  another  expost  of 


1 86  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

the  American  trust  movement,  but  I  am  inclined  to  think 
that  I  can  now  leave  that  work  to  others.  There  is  no 
danger  that  either  the  students  on  one  side,  or  the  tyrants 
on  the  other,  will  leave  the  public  at  rest. 


CHAPTER  XXII 
"HARD,  VERY  HARD  COAL" 

WHILE  Mr.  Lloyd's  advocacy  of  compulsory 
arbitration  was  filling  the  press,  the  greatest 
strike  in  American  history  furnished  a  remarkable 
demonstration  of  its  value,  and  flashed  into  the  people's 
experience  a  vivid  picture  of  the  forces  in  combat.  The 
scene  lay  in  the  mine  regions  of  Pennsylvania,  where 
there  existed  a  natural  monopoly  of  anthracite  coal. 
In  the  closing  thirty-six  years  of  the  nineteenth  century 
all  the  mines  had  passed  into  the  ownership  of  a  few 
great  coal-carrying  corporations,  an  evolution  of  which 
Lloyd  had  been  a  close  observer.  The  condition  of  the 
workers  under  this  regime  of  "Company  stores," 
"  Company  houses, "  "  Company  doctors, "  had  become 
unendurable;  the  Company  lived  they  said  "not  only 
by  mining  coal  but  by  mining  miners. "  The  difficulty 
of  united  action  for  relief  was  great,  owing  to  there 
being  over  twenty  nationalities  among  them.  In  1900, 
ten  years  after  the  organisation  of  the  United  Mine 
Workers  of  America,  the  anthracite  section  numbered 
less  than  8000.  Under  the  leadership  of  John  Mitchell, 
these  and  their  fellow-workers  determined  to  struggle 
for  a  chance  to  live  as  befitted  American  standards, 
and  at  the  gate  of  winter  over  a  hundred  thousand 

187 


i88  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

refused  to  work.    Mr.  Lloyd  pointed  the  lesson,  writing 
to  the  New  York  World,  September  15,  1900: 

The  public  that  submits  to  the  wars  upon  itself  of  coal 
strikes  and  coal  trusts  forfeits  all  rights  to  the  name  of 
American  people.  It  is  not  a  people,  only  a  collection  of 
persons,  a  national  mob  of  persons  living  in  economic 
anarchy. 

When  we  become  civilised  industrially  we  will  compel 
labour  and  capital  to  take  their  street  fights  into  a  court- 
room of  public  arbitration  and  we  will  tolerate  either  in  coal 
or  anything  else  no  monopoly  except  our  own  monopoly, 
that  of  a  people  supplying  itself  at  cost. 

When  a  Republican  "  boss  "  prominent  in  the  National 
Civic  Federation,  which  was  endeavouring  to  settle 
the  trouble, — a  presidential  election  was  impending,— 
stated  publicly  that  there  was  no  coal  trust,  and  pro- 
nounced the  workmen  prosperous  and  contented, 
The  Strike  of  Millionaires  Against  Miners  was  able 
to  do  further  good  through  its  descriptions  of  miners' 
sufferings,  which  were  used  by  the  press  of  New  York, 
Chicago,  even  of  Texas,  as  still  applicable.  The  strike 
achieved  a  ten  per  cent,  increase  in  wages,  but  as  it  was 
more  than  counterbalanced  by  an  increase  in  the  cost 
of  living,  the  miners  found  themselves  worse  off  than 
before.  It  was  evident  that  the  vital  issue  was  still 
to  be  met,  and  both  sides  prepared  for  the  contest. 
By  1902  practically  every  miner  was  a  member  of  the 
union.  It  being  imperative  to  obtain  new  conditions, 
the  miners  endeavoured  to  arrange  a  conference  with 
their  employers,  but  these  refused,  saying  that  there 
could  not  be  two  masters  in  the  management  of  business. 
The  men,  through  the  mediation  of  the  Civic  Federation, 
lessened  their  demands  and  again  offered  to  submit 


"  Hard,  Very  Hard  Coal  "  189 

the  dispute  to  a  board  of  arbitration,  but  in  vain.  They 
then  voted  to  strike. 

Accordingly,  one  May  morning  when  the  whistles 
sounded  there  was  no  response,  miners  started  garden- 
ing or  went  elsewhere  in  search  of  work,  breaker  boys 
enjoyed  a  holiday.  Even  picketing  was  unnecessary, 
as  only  the  pumps  needed  to  protect  the  mines  were 
running.  Wall  Street,  unable  to  comprehend  the  new 
spirit  of  emancipation,  believed  that  all  would  soon 
blow  over.  The  operators  maintained  an  attitude  of 
"a  fight  to  a  finish."  Thus  was  ushered  in  one  of  the 
most  thrilling  chapters  in  our  people's  history.  In 
two  weeks,  $10,000,000  had  been  lost,  soft  coal  smoke 
was  blackening  the  cities,  New  York's  supply  of  an- 
thracite was  almost  exhausted.  Every  effort  toward 
arbitration  was  repulsed  by  the  coal  companies.  Still 
the  thousands  of  idle  men,  seventy  per  cent,  of  whom 
were  not  English  speaking,  kept  peaceful  resistance 
while  armoured  trains  brought  in  several  thousand 
special  Coal  and  Iron  Police,  ready  for  June  2,  when 
the  men  protecting  the  mines  had  threatened  to  strike. 
On  that  day  eighty  per  cent,  of  these  men  deserted 
their  post.  Then  business  houses  began  to  shut  down. 
A  committee  from  the  New  York  Board  of  Trade  and 
Transportation  travelled  to  Washington  to  confer 
with  the  President,  asking  him  to  intervene,  which 
caused  the  operators  to  repeat  their  refrain  of  "no 
concession,"  " no  arbitration. " 

Public  sentiment  was  becoming  excited  and  indig- 
nant, for  every  mine  was  closed  and  the  strike  was 
costing  $1,000,000  a  day.  The  President,  anxious  to 
intervene,  was  casting  about  for  some  legitimate 
method,  either  ex-officio  or  informal.  The  funds  of 
the  strikers  began  to  dwindle,  their  spirits  were  de- 


190  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

pressed,  and  it  was  a  well-guarded  secret  at  head- 
quarters that  it  required  great  energy  to  keep  the 
ranks  unbroken. 

Renewed  efforts  for  a  settlement  were  met  again  by  a 
statement  in  the  press  by  George  F.  Baer,  leading 
operator: 

We  will  give  no  consideration  to  any  plan  of  arbitration 
or  mediation  or  to  any  interference  on  the  part  of  any  out- 
side party. 

A  private  appeal  to  Mr.  Baer  elicited  the  now  famous 
answer,  which  was  photographed  at  Lloyd's  suggestion : 

I  do  not  know  who  you  are.  I  see  that  you  are  a  religious 
man,  but  you  are  evidently  biassed  in  favour  of  the  right  of 
the  working  man  to  control  a  business  in  which  he  has  no 
other  interest  than  to  obtain  fair  wages  for  the  work  he  does. 

I  beg  of  you  not  to  be  discouraged.  The  rights  and  inter- 
ests of  the  labouring  man  will  be  protected  and  cared  for — 
not  by  the  labour  agitators,  but  by  the  Christian  men  to 
whom  God  in  His  infinite  wisdom  has  given  the  control  of 
the  property  interests  of  the  country,  and  upon  the  success- 
ful management  of  which  so  much  depends. 

Do  not  be  discouraged.  Pray  earnestly  that  right  may 
triumph,  always  remembering  that  the  Lord  God  Omnipo- 
tent still  reigns,  and  that  His  reign  is  one  of  law  and  order 
and  not  of  violence  and  crime. 

Contributions  now  came  into  the  treasury  of  the 
miners'  union  from  all  parts  of  America,  and  even  from 
far-off  South  Wales.  General  Gobin  of  Pennsylvania 
issued  "  shoot-to-kill "  orders  to  his  troops  who  were 
moving  against  unarmed  strikers.  When  the  New  York 
Journal*  telegraphed  Lloyd  to  organise  a  committee  to 
further  a  settlement,  he  answered: 

1  New  York  Journal,  August  23,  1902. 


S;  KfitMitg  KittliHrttJ  (!ui 
JmVuViiK-,  (Ot'firr. 


VjT  <5»nr  Mr.  Clark :- 

I  have  your  letter  of  tha  15th  laatant. 

I  do  not  know  wuo  you  »rs.       I  aea  that  you  are  a  relig- 
ion* aan;     but  you  are  eyidsntiy  biased  in  favor  of  tho  right    of 
tho  working  man  to  control  a  'bue.'Jiesa  in  which  ho  ha*  no  atizar  in- 
ter«st  than  to  aosura  fair  vagoa  for  the  work  h«  does. 

I  beg  of  yau  not  to  be  discouragad.     The  right*  and  in- 
t»r«ft»  of  th»  laboring  man  Till  ba  protactad  and  cared  for    -  not 
by  the  labor  agitator*,  but  by  -foe  Christian  man  to  *«han  Qcxi  in  His 
infinite  wisdom  ha«  givon  the  oont.-ol  of  the  property  iuteraats  of 
the  coiotry,  and  upon  tha  succoas^l  Eanaga-aent  sf  *ich  ao  much  de- 
panda* 

Do  not  be  diaoouraged          Pray  aarnastly  that  right  may 
triunph,  alvaya  raoanbariog  that  tha  Lord  God  Oconipotent  atill 
ridgni,  and  that  His  reign  la  one  of  law  and  order,   and  not  of  vio- 
lanco  and  crime. 


Prwaiden't 

Mr.  1»  y,  Clark, 

liikaa-Barr*, 


The  Letter  of  George  F.  Baer. 


"  Hard,  Very  Hard  Coal"  191 

However  tne  property  was  got,  and  thereby  hangs  a  tale, 
the  monopoly  of  anthracite  coal  in  Pennsylvania  is  private 
property  and  has  all  the  rights  of  such  property.  The 
essence  of  that  right  is  to  administer  the  property  within 
the  law  for  the  benefit  of  the  private  owners.  If  the  people 
want  this  property  administered  for  their  benefit,  let  them 
make  themselves  the  owners. 

It  is  self-stultification  for  the  public  to  demand  of  the 
owners  of  this  property  that  they  treat  as  sacred,  duties 
like  that  of  arbitration,  which  the  public  itself  disregards. 

If  the  public  does  not  care  enough  for  itself  as  labourer  to 
protect  the  living  wage,  the  rights  of  organisation,  collective 
bargaining,  arbitration,  and  the  right  to  work,  nor  enough 
for  itself  as  consumer  to  protect  its  supply  of  heat,  light,  and 
power,  how  can  it  have  the  cheek  to  ask  monopolies  to  do 
these  things  for  it? 

The  people  of  the  whole  country  are  making  the  unpleas- 
ant discovery  that  they  have  one  more  master  added  to 
scores  they  already  knew  of. 

The  only  committee  for  self-respecting  Americans  to  join 
in  this  matter  is  a  committee  of  all  the  citizens,  to  transfer 
the  ownership  of  the  two  necessities  of  life  concerned — 
employment  and  coal — from  the  hands  of  private  self- 
interest  to  those  of  public  self-interest. 

The  public  safety  is  the  supreme  law. 

If  the  coal  mines  are  not  in  full  operation  and  the  markets, 
including  the  American  army,  navy,  and  government  depart- 
ments, supplied  at  a  reasonable  price  by  September  ist — the 
beginning  of  fall — with  winter  only  two  or  three  months 
,away,  an  emergency,  industrial,  military,  naval,  postal, 
social,  and  vital  as  affecting  the  public  health,  will  be 
created  that  will  call  for  emergency  measures. 

The  people  ought  then  to  rise  in  a  committee  of  the  whole 
to  demand  that  the  President  call  an  extra  session  of  Con- 
gress to  act,  even  to  the  extent  of  declaring  martial  law  in 
the  coal-fields,  and  taking  national  possession  of  them  and 
the  railroads.  No  confiscation,  of  course,  unless  the  mine- 


192  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

owners  give  us  another  Shays's  rebellion  in  the  mountains 
of  Pennsylvania.  But  action  first  and  compensation  after- 
ward. There  is,  I  am  informed,  in  one  of  the  States — 
perhaps  it  is  Pennsylvania — a  law  by  which  public  service 
corporations,  as  electric  railroad  companies,  needing  private 
property,  can  take  it  summarily  under  some  twist  of  the 
power  of  eminent  domain  and  pay  afterward  a  value  deter- 
mined afterward. 

Let  us  have  a  committee  of  the  whole  to  put  the  public  in 
possession  of  such  a  power  over  the  coal  monopoly,  over  all 
the  monopolies. 

As  autumn  approached  public  opinion  became 
alarmed.  Many  petitions  for  a  special  session  were  sent 
to  President  Roosevelt.  Even  Republican  bosses  of 
Pennsylvania  failed  to  move  the  operators,  whose  now 
familiar  litany, "no  arbitration,"  was  again  heard.  The 
idea  of  a  compulsory  arbitration  law  was  bruited,  and 
there  was  a  rumour  that  Governor  Stone  of  Pennsylvania 
was  favourable  to  calling  a  special  session  of  the  Legis- 
lature to  enact  one.  The  Prime  Minister  of  Australia, 
touring  the  country,  publicly  pronounced  it  incredible 
that  a  handful  of  men  should  be  allowed  to  paralyse  an 
entire  nation. 

In  the  middle  of  September,  in  the  eighteenth  week 
of  the  strike,  a  crisis  seemed  to  be  reached.  Mr.  Baer 
formally  announced  the  operators'  ultimatum  that 
they  would  brook  no  interference,  would  treat  with 
their  own  men,  and,  unless  these  reported  for  work  on 
the  same  scale  of  wages  as  before,  their  places  would 
be  filled.  The  day  after  this  announcement,  Lloyd, 
who  was  at  Sakonnet  boiling  with  indignation,  wrote 
to  Father  Power  at  Spring  Valley: 

LITTLE  COMPTON,  R.  I.,  Sept.  17,  '02. 
MY  DEAR  FRIEND  : 

I   think  I   must   go  to   Pennsylvania  to  see   this  other 


''Hard,  Very  Hard  Coal"  193 

great  strike  of  millionaires  against  miners.  You  brought 
up  John  Mitchell.  Will  you  give  me  a  word  of  introduction 
to  him?  .  .  . 

Although  help  was  now  coming  in  without  diminu- 
tion to  the  strikers, — the  bituminous  miners  were  giving 
ten  per  cent,  of  their  earnings,  which  in  the  end  amounted 
to  $1,400,000, — funds  were  still  insufficient,  but  Mit- 
chell declared  that  the  men  would  starve  before  they 
would  yield.  He  made  an  elaborate  public  statement 
in  answer  to  Mr.  Baer,  declaring  that  the  wages  paid 
were  not  just : 

There  is  another  generation  coming  up — a  generation  of 
little  children  prematurely  doomed  to  the  whirl  of  the  mill 
and  the  noise  and  blackness  of  the  breaker.  It  is  for  these 
little  children  we  are  fighting.  We  have  not  underestimated 
the  strength  of  our  opponents;  we  have  not  overestimated 
our  own  power  of  resistance.  Accustomed  always  to  live 
upon  little,  a  little  less  is  no  unendurable  hardship.  It  was 
with  a  quaking  of  hearts  that  we  asked  for  our  last  pay 
envelopes ;  but  in  the  grimy  and  bruised  hand  of  the  miner 
was  the  little  white  hand  of  a  child,  a  child  like  the  children 
of  the  rich,  and  in  the  heart  of  the  miner  was  the  soul-rooted 
determination  to  starve  to  the  last  crust  of  bread  and  fight 
out  the  long  dreary  battle  to  win  a  life  for  the  child  and 
obtain  for  it  a  place  in  the  world  in  keeping  with  advancing 
civilisation. * 

He  further  stated  that  the  miners  did  not  wish  to 
interfere  in  the  management  of  the  properties,  offered 
again  to  submit  their  demands  to  an  impartial  board 
of  arbitrators,  and  to  abide  by  the  result.  He  said 
that  every  effort  had  been  made  to  preserve  peace  in 
a  voluntarily  idle  population  of  three  quarters  of  a 

1  New  York  Herald,  29  September,  1902. 

VOL.  II  — 13 


194  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

million.  "It  is  due,"  he  said,  "to  the  activity  of  our 
officers  and  the  loyalty  and  self-restraint  of  our  mem- 
bers that  we  have  been  more  successful  in  allaying 
violence  than  the  Coal  and  Iron  Police  in  inciting 
it.  .  .  ." 

Public  sentiment  against  the  obduracy  of  the  oper- 
ators was  growing.  Winter  was  at  hand,  and  the  coun- 
try was  facing  a  fuel  famine.  In  some  towns  coal 
cost  $20  a  ton.  Mark  Twain  sent  a  laugh  through  the 
press: 

HON.  SEC'Y  OF  TREASURY,  WASHINGTON,  D.  C. 
SIR: 

Prices  for  customary  kinds  of  winter  fuel  having  reached 
the  altitude  which  puts  them  out  of  the  reach  of  literary 
persons  in  straitened  circumstances,  I  desire  to  place 
with  you  the  following  order: — 

45  tons  best  old  dry  government  bonds  suitable  for 
furnace,  gold  7%,  1864,  preferred. 

12  tons  early  greenbacks,  range  size,  suitable  for  cooking. 

8  barrels  seasoned  25  and  50  ct.  postal  currency,  vintage 
of  1866,  eligible  for  kindlings. 

Please  deliver  with  all  convenient  despatch  at  my  house, 
in  Riverdale,  at  lowest  rates  for  spot  cash,  and  send  bill  to 

Your  obliged  servant, 

MARK  TWAIN, 
who  will  be  very  grateful  and  will  vote  right. 

Even  conservative  citizens  were  being  led  rapidly 
into  radical  positions.  The  passing  of  a  compulsory 
arbitration  law  was  continually  suggested.  Hundreds 
of  copies  of  Lloyd's  Country  Without  Strikes  were 
sent  to  editors  for  review  and  to  influential  men, 
including  President  Roosevelt,  and  to  leaders  among 
operators  and  miners.  In  the  current  Atlantic  Monthly, 
his  article,  "The  Australasian  Cure  for  Coal  Wars," 


"  Hard,  Very  Hard  Coal "  195 

told  again  the  story  with  the  latest  news  that  New 
Zealand  was  about  to  establish  state  coal  mines.  Here 
and  there  voices  were  raised,  now  of  a  minister,  now  of 
a  judge,  now  of  a  body  of  citizens,  declaring  it  to  be 
right  for  the  State  to  compel  owners  to  operate,  or 
itself  to  condemn  the  mines  and  operate  them  through 
lessees.  The  government  administration  became 
alarmed.  But  not  so  the  operators,  who  declared  that 
there  was  not  the  slightest  change  in  their  policy. 
President  Roosevelt  now  determined  to  act.  On  the 
morning  of  October  2,  the  presidents  of  the  great 
coal  roads  and  Mitchell,  with  three  colleagues,  met  at 
the  White  House,  while  the  country  waited  breathlessly 
for  the  result.  In  answer  to  the  President's  appeal  to 
sink  their  differences  and  to  allow  coal  mining  to  be 
immediately  resumed,  pending  arbitration,  Mitchell 
instantly  agreed,  but  the  operators  angrily  refused. 
They,  however,  stated  their  willingness,  if  the  miners 
would  abandon  their  organisation,  to  submit  the 
grievances  presented  by  them  as  individuals  to  their 
several  Courts  of  Common  Pleas  and  abide  by  their 
decision.  Thus  ended  in  defeat  one  of  the  most  re- 
markable conferences  ever  held  in  the  White  House. 
Mitchell's  demeanour  was  so  dignified,  concerned,  rea- 
sonable, that  the  President  personally  thanked  him. 
The  bearing  of  the  operators,  on  the  other  hand, 
shocked  the  whole  country,  being  one  of  defiance  and 
resentment,  from  the  moment  of  arrival  until  they 
whirled  away  in  their  private  car. 

The  conflict  now  became  more  intense.  As  in  this 
interview  the  operators  had  claimed  that  the  only 
reason  coal  was  not  mined  was  the  violence  against 
non-union  miners,  and  that  given  sufficient  State  and 
Federal  troops  there  would  be  no  trouble,  the  next 


196  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

step  was  to  take  them  at  their  word.  Governor  Stone 
then  rushed  the  entire  National  Guard  of  Pennsylvania 
into  the  mine  regions.  Mitchell  answered  this  by  an 
appeal  for  peace,  calling  upon  all  miners,  union  and 
non-union,  to  declare  whether  or  not  work  was  inter- 
fered with  by  violence.  In  answer  350  local  unions, 
without  a  dissenting  voice,  except  one  sub-section, 
declared  that  work  was  not  interfered  with,  and  agreed 
to  remain  firm.  "We  will  stay  on  strike  until  the 
bluebirds  call  again,"  telegraphed  one  section.  But  in 
spite  of  the  troops  mines  were  not  opened,  coal  was 
$25.00  a  ton,  in  twenty  cities  the  bins  were  nearly 
empty.  Mass  meetings  were  held  all  over  the  country. 
A  national  convention  of  private  citizens  at  Detroit 
passed  a  resolution  asking  the  condemnation  of  the 
railroads  and  mines  in  order  to  supply  the  public. 
The  Republican  politicians  threatened  a  bill  annulling 
the  charters.  Still  rang  out  firmly  the  operators' 
refrain,  no  concession,  no  recognition  of  the  union, 
and  no  advance  beyond  the  ten  per  cent,  granted  in 
1900.  Lloyd  was  now  journeying  full  speed  to  Wilkes- 
barre.  He  wrote  to  his  wife : 

WlLKESBARRE,  PA.,  Oct.  7,  igO2. 

...  I  got  here  last  night.  .  .  .  My  day  began  well — an 
interview  with  Mitchell,  talks  with  some  of  the  miners,  a 
visit  to  the  Military  Camp,  which  is  as  superfluous  a  luxury 
for  Wilkesbarre,  absolutely  quiet  and  orderly,  as  a  jail  would 
be  for  heaven.  But  my  programme  of  further  talks  with 
Mitchell  and  the  leaders  was  suddenly  interrupted  by  the 
abrupt  .  .  .  departure  of  all  of  them  for  New  York.  It  is 
thought  here  that  this  means  a  settlement.  The  finest 
episode  of  the  strike  has  been  the  answer  the  miners  have 
made,  to-day,  to  Gov.  Stone's  calling  out  of  the  whole  State 
guard.  They  have  held  meetings  all  over  the  anthracite 


"  Hard,  Very  Hard  Coal "  197 

country,  and  unanimously  decided  not  to  go  back  to  work. 
The  meetings  were  public,  non-union  men  were  invited  as 
well  as  union  men,  Mitchell  and  the  other  heads  did  not  go 
near  the  meetings,  which  were  all  under  the  control  of 
the  local  forces,  and  yet  so  far  as  heard  from  to-night  not 
one  man  voted  to  go  back  to  work.  What  can  troops  do 
with  men  who  will  neither  work  nor  riot?  .  .  . 

He  suspected  that  the  whole  affair  was  a  ruse,  that 
the  strike  was  forced  as  a  means  toward  such  a  combina- 
tion of  hard  and  soft  coal  interests  as  to  enhance 
permanently  the  price  of  anthracite,  and  to  force 
bituminous  into  a  wider  use  than  ever  before,  at  the 
sacrifice  of  individual  health  and  municipal  beauty. 
He  telegraphed  to  the  White  House: 

PRESIDENT  ROOSEVELT,  WASHINGTON,  D.  C.: 

Allow  me  suggest  indications  justify  investigation  whether 
conspiracy  exists  between  hard  and  soft  coal  interests. 
Bituminous  miners  are  working  and  supply  unlimited. 
Anthracite  shortage  affords  extraordinary  commercial  op- 
portunity to  market  bituminous  and  yet  it  is  withheld. 
Why?  Probably  both  interests  working  create  permanent 
fuel  trust  governing  anthracite,  bituminous,  and  all 
branches  from  mines  to  retail  yards.  Give  us  publicity 
and  prevention. 

HENRY  DEMAREST  LLOYD. 

He  wrote  to  Mr.  Bowles: 

Here  I  think  is  the  real  clue  to  what  is  going  on.  The 
strike  was  forced  as  a  single  move  in  a  much  greater  game. 
.  .  .  They  have  got  the  thing  so  far  along  .  .  .  that  even  a 
little  place  on  the  prairies  like  Winnetka  has  its  "exclusive 
agent."  John  Graham  Brooks  said  at  the  2oth  Century 
Club  Saturday  that  one  of  the  leading  coal  men  of  the 
country  two  years  ago  told  him  that  plans  were  under  way 


198  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

for  a  combination  of  hard  and  soft  coal  interests!  "And 
you  will  see, "  he  said,  "that  we  will  accomplish  it. "  Well, 
you  see  it  now  being  accomplished  under  your  eyes.  There 
is  no  paper  can  handle  this  as  The  Republican.  .  .  .  You 
have  New  England  all  at  your  back,  and  in  front  of  you  the 
crudest  trust  yet  in  the  hatching,  and  perhaps  scotchable. 
Roosevelt  is  a  boy  in  these  matters. 

TOLEDO,  OHIO,  Oct.  10,  1902. 

I  have  stopped  at  Golden  Rule  Sammy's1  house  for  a 
night  on  my  way  back  from  Detroit  whither  I  ran  to  "size 
up"  the  Coal  Conference.  There  was  a  lull  in  anthracite 
which  seemed  to  presage  peace,  and  I  thought  I  might  per- 
haps leave  Pennsylvania  for  good.  But  it  is  quite  evident 

from  such  talk  as  that  of  G and  H ,  and  the  latest 

move  of  the  operators  that  they  are  planning  to  do  a  piece 
of  the  devil's  work  there.  So  I  am  going  back  to-morrow, 
stopping  at  Cleveland  for  a  peep  at  Tom  Johnson's  show. 

President  Roosevelt  now,  on  October  10,  sent  Sec- 
retary of  War  Root  to  New  York,  to  confer  with 
Pierpont  Morgan  on  his  yacht.  In  three  days  Morgan, 
representing  the  operators,  appeared  at  the  White 
House  and  informed  the  President  that  they  would 
accept  the  arbitration  of  a  commission  appointed  by 
him!  On  the  day  Roosevelt  was  choosing  his  commis- 
sion, Lloyd  wrote: 

WlLKESBARRE,   PA.,   Oct.   14,   1902. 

DEAR  MR.  MITCHELL: 

Even  if  the  strike  is  settled  you  will  need  lots  of  money 
for  your  women  and  children,  and  here  is  my  trifle.  I 
enclose  Father  Power's  note  of  introduction,  tho  I  hardly 
need  it. 

I  want  to  say  to  you  that  I  am  at  your  service  if  I  can  be 
of  any  use  to  you  and  the  miners.  If  I  can  help  you, 

1  Samuel  Jones,  Mayor  of  Toledo. 


"  Hard,  Very  Hard  Coal  "  199 

publicly  or  privately,  in  raising  money,  defending  the  Union, 
preparing  matter  for  publication,  getting  ready  your  case 
for  the  proposed  arbitration — anything,  command  me.  I 
will  lay  aside  my  other  business  and  give  my  time  to  this, 
paying  my  own  expenses. 

You  need  not  answer  this;  I  will  call  to  see  you. 

Thus  did  Mitchell,  facing  the  prospect  of  defending 
the  rights  of  hundreds  of  thousands  of  poor  men  against 
the  might  of  corporate  wealth,  feel  the  strong  arm  of  a 
stranger  upholding  him. 

I  have  offered  Mitchell  my  assistance  in  preparing  the 
miners'  case  before  the  proposed  commission  [he  wrote  to 
his  wife],  and  he  has  gratefully  accepted.  It  promises  to  be 
a  very  important  and  historic  proceeding,  unless  the  mine- 
owners,  fearful  of  the  revelations  it  would  make,  make  such 
concessions  as  to  bring  the  whole  difference  to  an  end.  This 
will  interrupt  my  work  on  my  books,  but  I  feel  as  if  I  could 
do  no  less.  And  I  will  gain  very  valuable  and  practical 
experience.  .  .  . 

Mrs.  and    Miss  turned   up  at  the  Mitchell 

headquarters  last  night,  and  were  deeply  grateful  to  me  for 

railroading  them  and  Mr.  to  an  immediate  interview. 

But  the  way  these  investigating  people  behave  disgusts  me. 
Working  people  on  strike,  starving — 500,000  of  them  here — 
are  only  specimens  to  them,  like  bugs  to  an  entomologist. 
They  seem  unable  to  grasp  the  idea  of  any  general  social 
question,  and  fly  from  scandals  about  labour  to  scandals 
about  capital  as  if  the  truth  were  to  be  found  by  some 

system  of  balancing  faults.     Mr.  in  his  talk  with 

Mitchell,  and  other  miners'  leaders,  showed  every  fault  of 
manner  and  mind  that  a  besotted  ancestral  conservative 
could  manifest,  until  I  was  ashamed  not  only  because  I 
had  introduced  him,  but  because  he  was  a  fellow-being. 
He  actually  denied  that  there  was  anything  out  of  the  way 


200  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

in  the  mine-owners'  conduct  in  increasing  the  size  of  the  car 
the  miners  have  to  fill  from  one  ton  to  two  tons,  without 
increasing  the  pay  or  even  letting  the  miners  know  that  the 
cars  were  being  built  larger  and  larger.  The  miners  say 
the  cars  must  be  made  of  live-oak,  for  they  are  always 
growing.  .  .  . 

Oct.  1 6.  .  .  .  It  has  been  an  intensely  interesting  day. 
I  have  been  on  the  inside  of  things,  knowing  the  news  before 
the  newspaper  men,  and  knowing  many  things  they  do  not. 
The  arbitration  scheme — so-called — proposed  by  the  oper- 
ators and  accepted  by  Mitchell  with  slight  modifications 
looks  to  me  still  like  a  "bunko"  game.  These  men  here 
see  this,  but  are  in  a  measure  forced  to  go  in  because  they 
cannot  afford  to  risk  the  loss  of  public  favour,  which  would 
mean  the  loss  of  support,  especially  cash  support.  .  .  . 

Oct.  17.  ...  This  morning  I  spent  with  Mitchell  and 
the  man  who  is  going  to  help  prepare  his  case  before  the 
Commission.  The  miners  have  spent  $1,000,000  on  this 
strike  and  have  a  good  deal  still  to  spend.  Measured  as 
strikes  are  measured  by  statisticians,  in  days  of  idleness  for 
all  added  together,  it  has  been  a  22,ooo,ooo-day  strike — the 
greatest  strike  in  history.  It  is  more  than  twice  as  great 
as  all  the  strikes,  put  together,  of  any  average  recent  year. 
I  am  to  help  Mitchell  get  the  facts  of  the  capitalisation  and 
excessive  profits  of  the  coal  roads.  It  will  be  quite  a  job 
but  it  is  after  all  a  small  contribution  to  a  great  struggle, 
and  a  very  important  one.  The  information  will  have  to  be 
sought  mainly  in  the  records  of  the  Interstate  Commerce 
Commission  at  Washington.  It  is  said  the  Commission 
will  begin  at  once.  If  so,  we  shall  have  to  hustle.  .  .  . 

New  York,  Oct.  18.  I  have  changed  my  spot  again. 
Mr.  Weyl — who  has  charge  of  the  preparation  of  a  part  of 
Mitchell's  case — and  I  have  come  on  to  New  York  to  get 
some  material.  To-night  we  go  to  Washington  to  see 


"  Hard,  Very  Hard  Coal  "  201 

Carroll  D.  Wright.  There  is  something  fishy  about  this 
Arbitration  Commission.  Some  things  indicate  that  it  is 
not  to  be  an  arbitration  commission  at  all.  ...  If  Mitchell 
and  the  miners  get  the  slightest  idea  that  they  are  being 
unfairly  dealt  with — tricked — they  won't  vote  on  Monday 
to  go  back  to  work.  It  makes  me  boil  with  indignation  to 
see  how  implicitly  it  has  been  taken  for  granted  by  Roose- 
velt and  the  negotiators  on  that  side  that  the  working  men 
are  an  inferior  class,  not  entitled  to  the  treatment  which 
business  people,  or  any  others,  would  demand  as  a  matter  of 
course.  I  have  no  other  news  than  this  fresh  indigna- 
tion. .  .  . 

When  the  Commission  was  appointed,  the  miners  in 
a  delegate  convention  at  Wilkesbarre  unanimously 
endorsed  it,  ordered  all  to  report  for  work  the  next 
morning,  and  in  great  enthusiasm  rose  and  sang  "My 
Country,  'tis  of  Thee."  As  the  months  had  been 
full  of  tension  and  distress,  so  now  was  the  rush  of 
joy  in  proportion.  In  mining  towns  church  arid  school 
bells  rang  through  the  noon  hour,  fire  companies 
paraded  clanging  their  engines,  houses  were  decorated. 
The  whole  country  breathed  a  sigh  of  relief.  Even 
Baer  was  pleased.  Lloyd,  as  happy  as  the  rest,  tele- 
graphed the  news  to  his  wife  from  the  convention. 
Mitchell  was  a  popular  hero.  A  day  of  rejoicing, 
"Mitchell  Day,"  was  proclaimed  throughout  the 
mining  region.  The  red  ribbon  badges  which  Lloyd 
wore  then  and  to  the  convention  previous  were  pre- 
served among  his  trophies.  He  was  much  impressed 
with  the  dramatic  contrast  between  the  way  in  which 
the  two  sides  accepted  arbitration,  the  miners  doing  so 
in  open  convention,  unanimously  and  singing  the 
national  anthem,  while  the  operators  grudgingly  con- 
sented before  a  panic-stricken  public,  and  then  only 


2O2  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

with  all  the  reservations  and  saving  clauses  which  the 
ablest  corporation  lawyers  could  devise. 

Oct.  20.  I  am  so  nearly  dead  with  the  fatigue  of  my  run 
to  New  York,  Philadelphia,  and  Washington  that  I  must 
not  write.  We  are  making  up  the  material  for  Mitchell's 
argument,  and  great  work  it  is.  Mr.  Weyl  and  I  walked 
with  Mr.  Mitchell  this  afternoon  to  the  Miners'  Conference, 
at  the  head  of  thousands  of  admiring  citizens.  .  .  . 

The  .  .  .  convention  was  positively  thrilling.  It  is  in 
such  assemblages  you  hear  real  eloquence;  they  speak  so 
simply,  so  directly,  and  on  matters  of  so  vital  an  importance 
to  them.  What  do  you  think  these  men  debated  about  for 
two  days?  Whether  they  could  go  back  without  sacrificing 
the  pump-men,  engineers,  etc.,  .  .  .  who  struck  to  help 
them.  Not  because  of  anything  affecting  themselves  be- 
yond the  small  minority  whose  places  have  been  filled  by 
"scabs."  More  than  one  engineer  rose  and  said,  "Don't 
mind  us;  go  back;  if  we  lose  our  places  permanently,  we  will 
hunt  others."  I  have  never  seen  a  convention  where  so 
much  toleration  was  shown  and  where  there  was  so  little 
"machine"  manipulation,  or  bossing.  It  was  a  supreme 
moment  when  the  convention  voted  without  one  dissenting 
voice  to  go  back  to  work,  and  leave  all  questions  to  arbi- 
tration. I  told  Mitchell  that  I  thanked  him  as  a  member 
of  the  capitalist  class.  ...  I  don't  know  what  Mitchell 
wants  me  to  do.  Perhaps  he  will  ask  me  to  appear  with 
him  before  the  Commission  in  Washington,  and  I  feel  as  if 
I  must  do  all  I  can  to  help  this  arbitration,  for,  do  you 
realise,  this  is,  as  regards  the  capitalists,  compulsory  arbi- 
tration forced  on  them  by  the  President  by  a  short-cut. 
The  last  act  of  the  miners'  convention  was  the  distribution 
of  5000  of  these  envelopes  prepared  at  my  suggestion  to 
obtain  evidence  of  the  wages  miners  really  get.  .  .  . 

We  have  now  about  twelve  experts  of  various  kinds  hard 
at  work  on  every  conceivable  phase  of  the  case  the  mine- 
workers  will  have  to  present.  The  prospects  are  that  the 


"  Hard,  Very  Hard  Coal  "  203 

operators  will  be  as  badly  whipped  before  the  Commission 
as  they  have  been  before  the  public.  There  has  never  been 
a  labour  strike  equal  to  this  one,  and  no  labour  arbitration 
has  ever  seen  the  cause  of  the  workmen  presented  as  this 
will  be.  But  all  this  preparation  has  kept  me  travelling  day 
and  night  without  time  for  sleep  and  sometimes  without 
meals.  But  I  am  now,  I  think,  through  with  that  phase  of 
it,  and  I  hope  that  not  another  day  will  pass  without  a 
letter  to  you.  .  .  . 

Wilkesbarre,  Oct.  22.  It  is  very  quiet  here  to-day — after 
the  battle — and  I  am  resting.  The  arbitration  may  not 
take  place  after  all.  Easley  is  coming  here,  probably  to 
negotiate  a  private  settlement.  I  have  never  been  able  to 
understand  how  the  coal  roads  could  dare  let  themselves  be 
investigated. 

To-night  I  am  to  have  Mitchell  take  dinner  with  me  here, 
where  the  generals  and  colonels  of  the  troops  and  many 
other  nobs  are  staying.  It  will  be  great  fun  to  see  them 
stare.  To-morrow  morning  at  half-past  six  I  go  to  see  one 
of  the  large  collieries  here  open  after  six  months'  idleness. 
The  sight  of  the  men  gathered  about  the  mouth  of  the 
pit  at  daybreak  will  be  most  interesting.  And  now  the 
slaughter  in  the  mines  recommences — 500  a  year  killed, 
1500  hurt.  The  idleness  of  the  strike  saved  250  lives  and 
750  cripples. 

Counsel  now  began  to  gather  to  consult  with 
Mitchell  as  to  the  conduct  of  the  case. 

Wilkesbarre,  Oct.  23.  Here  I  am  off,  at  two  hours' 
notice,  to  Washington  again,  to  see  the  Commissioners  to- 
morrow in  arranging  details  about  the  arbitration.  .  .  . 
This  is  developing  into  a  cause  cel&bre.  I  am  not  taking 
the  lead  in  the  work,  but  helping  only.  Mitchell  has 
appointed  Weyl  and  myself  his  representatives  to  assist 
him  before  the  Commission.  We  have  several  lawyers, 
and  a  dozen  experts  at  work.  .  .  . 


204  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

Cosmos  Club,  Washington,  D.  C.,  Oct.  23.  I  have  just 
had,  with  Weyl,  a  talk  with  Carroll  D.  Wright,  and  am  to 
see  him  again  this  afternoon  about  the  Arbitration  Com- 
mission. .  .  .  Wright  seems  very  favourable  to  the  miners. 
The  President  and  he  are  going  to  become  the  most  popular 
men  in  the  world  for  their  part  in  this.  .  .  . 

"  Mr.  Lloyd  was  full  of  enthusiasm,  like  a  boy  of 
twenty,"  said  Prof.  Isaac  Hourwich,  one  of  the  counsel. 
At  first  he  favoured  dispensing  with  professional 
counsel  according  to  the  New  Zealand  method,  but 
finally  succumbed  to  the  necessity  of  meeting  the 
attorneys  of  the  coal  barons  on  their  own  ground. 
This  agreed  upon,  the  next  step  was  to  select  the 
lawyer.  Just  at  this  point  he  was  called  away  to  his 
eldest  son's  wedding. 

Take  good  care  of  your  cause  by  taking  good  care  of 
yourself  [were  his  farewell  words  to  Mitchell].  I  shall  be 
back  at  the  earliest  possible  moment  ready  to  serve  you  in 
all  ways  in  my  power. 

While  in  Chicago  he  opened  the  subject  of  the  case 
with  Clarence  Darrow,  who,  he  told  Mitchell,  was 
made  to  serve  him.  When  Mitchell  telegraphed  that 
Darrow  had  accepted  the  case,  his  enthusiasm  flashed 
over  the  wires:  "Congratulate  both.  When  bad  men 
combine  the  good  must  associate."  He  was  soon  back 
again. 

Wilkesbarre,  Nov.  4.  Here  I  am.  Darrow  is  not  to  be 
here  until  day  after  to-morrow,  and  Weyl  .  .  .  has  gone  to 
Harrisburg  so  that  I  am  without  company.  But  I  did  one 
good  thing  to-night.  I  went  after  dinner  to  Mitchell's 
hotel,  and  took  him  out  for  a  walk.  We  were  out  over  an 
hour,  and  tho  I  did  most  of  the  talking  he  seemed  to 
be  interested.  .  .  .  Mitchell  is  a  very  plain  simple  man ;  his 


"  Hard,  Very  Hard  Coal  "  205 

political  experience  has  been  much  like  mine — he  walked 
for  office  in  the  People's  party,  and  walked  out  of  the  party 
when  they  ratified  Bryan's  nomination.  .  .  . 

Nov.  7.  ...  I  took  the  "leader"  out  walking  again  last 
night.  I  find  he  is  acquiring  the  highly  undesirable  habit  of 
worrying  at  night,  and  I  have  set  myself  up  to  him  as  a 
model  of  anti- worry.  Could  cheek  go  farther!  However, 
he  says  the  walks  are  doing  him  good.  ...  I  took  a  walk 
.  .  .  this  morning,  and  then  went  to  Mitchell,  and  listened 
and  conferred  about  "the  case."  I  was  able  to  make  a 
suggestion  that  seemed  to  be  acceptable — that  the  real 
cause  of  the  violence  was  the  refusal  to  arbitrate.  We 
learn  that  the  companies  are  giving  their  principal  efforts  to 
collecting  evidence  to  show  that  the  men  have  been  in- 
dulging in  a  constant  series  of  petty  strikes  during  the  past 
two  years,  and  to  collecting  every  instance  of  violence. 
Our  reply  to  the  first  is  to  be  that  the  way  to  prevent  this 
annoying  multiplicity  of  strikes  is  to  deal  with  the  men 
through  the  union.  They  have  struck  because  they  had  no 
other  way  of  calling  attention  to  their  grievances  and 
securing  redress.  As  to  violence,  we  shall  reply  that  the 
union  cannot  be  held  responsible  for  the  unauthorised 
violence  of  individuals,  and  that  there  would  have  been  no 
violence  if  there  had  been  arbitration. 

Darrow  arrives  this  afternoon  to  my  joy,  for,  after  that, 
I  shall  not  have  to  take  my  meals  alone — which  is  melan- 
choly business,  anyhow,  but  almost  unendurably  so  when 
you  are  as  homesick  as  I  am.  If  after  Darrow  has  taken 
hold,  I  cannot  find  more  constant  occupation,  I  shall  come 
home,  and  get  to  work  on  my  own  proper  business. 

I  and  Mitchell,  Darrow,  Weyl,  Dr.  Roberts,  the  Welsh 
miners'  clergyman,  and  a  half  dozen  labour  leaders  are  all 
going  to  the  theatre  to-night  as  the  honoured  guests  of 
Mitchell  night.  It  will  be  a  "stag"  party.  It  will  be  a 
novel  renewal  for  me  of  the  halcyon  days  when  I  used  to  go 
"dead-head"  to  all  the  theatres  and  operas.  Oh,  those 
good  old  times!  .  .  . 


206  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

I  am  helping  Mitchell  in  ...  his  case  [he  wrote  to 
another],  and  incidentally,  I  hope,  making  him  more  friendly 
to  socialism. 

The  first  act  of  the  Commission,  after  duly  organising 
as  the  "Anthracite  Coal  Strike  Commission,"  was  to 
make  a  week's  investigating  tour  of  the  mines.  Lloyd's 
suggestion  to  Mitchell  that  he  arrange  systematically 
to  have  the  Commission  encounter  the  crippled  men 
and  children,  and  detect  the  temporary  removal  of 
under-aged  children,  was  typical  of  the  kind  of  help 
he  was  able  to  give. 

Nov.  1 1 .  Your  husband  is  a  pretty  tired  man.  For  one 
thing  I  did  not  .  .  .  get  a  letter  from  you  to-day,  and  such 
days  are  not  red  letter  but  dead  letter  days  in  my  calendar. 
Darrow  and  I  spent  a  large  part  of  Monday  tramping 
through  a  coal  mine.  ...  It  was  a  most  interesting  trip — 
but  much  like  a  foretaste  of  the  inferno.  "You  might  as 
well  get  used  to  it, "  Darrow  said.  The  rest  of  the  day  until 
near  midnight  we  spent  on  preparing  papers,  witnesses,  etc. 
Mitchell  has  given  my  name  to  the  papers  as  that  of  one  of 
his  counsel.  He  is  a  little  bit  nervous  about  his  appearance 
before  the  Commission.  .  .  .  Booker  T.  Washington  lect- 
ures here  to-night,  and  I  hope  to  get  hold  of  him  for  dinner, 
which  will  be  my  only  chance.  .  .  . 

Nov.  13.  I  have  literally  not  had  time  for  four  days  to 
have  my  shoes  blacked.  We  are  giving  our  witnesses 
preliminary  examinations ;  making  plans  for  new  testimony ; 
drafting  answers  to  the  companies'  replies;  and  holding 
councils  of  war.  We  hear  this  morning  that  Scranton,  to 
which  we  move  to-day,  is  full  of  the  enemies'  lawyers,  and 
that  we  have  the  fight  of  our  lives  before  us.  I  am  taking  a 
very  quiet  part,  but  have  had  much  to  do  in  planning  and 
executing  our  campaign.  I  have  at  last  succeeded  in  getting 
the  consent  of  our  people  to  what,  if  properly  managed,  will 


207 

be  one  of  the  most  effective  demonstrations  we  make; 
putting  on  the  witness  stand  some  of  the  breaker  children, 
and  some  of  the  miners'  wives  to  tell  how  the  wife  and 
mother  holds  her  family  together,  brings  up  the  children, 
always  has  something  for  the  man's  dinner  pail  on  $35  a 
month.  The  companies  are  apparently  in  a  very  ugly 
mood.  The  Tory  is  always  the  same.  .  .  . 

During  this  week,  President  Eliot  of  Harvard  Uni- 
versity, in  a  public  speech,  rallied  to  the  support  of 
non-union  labour,  declaring  that  the  scab  was  "a  good 
type  of  American  hero."  Lloyd's  retort  was  widely 
printed  throughout  the  country: 

The  strike  breaker  or  scab  is  in  our  day  precisely  the  same 
kind  of  "good  type  of  American  hero"  as  the  New  England 
loyalist  was  in  his  day  when  he  did  his  best  to  ruin  the 
struggle  of  his  fellow-colonists  for  independence. 

The  trade-union  movement  is  a  movement  for  the  inde- 
pendence of  the  working  people,  who  are  the  only  real 
people.  It  is  one  of  the  greatest  democratic  movements  in 
history,  an  emancipation  unique  in  the  ages,  because  it  is 
self-emancipation.  The  working  people  of  the  world  during 
the  last  century  have  been  chased  by  what  Toynbee  called 
the  industrial  revolution  out  of  the  possession  of  an  economic 
independence  which  they  possessed  before  that  change. 

One  hundred  years  ago  the  weaver  owned  his  loom,  the 
shoemaker  his  bench.  The  instruments  of  production  have 
been  swept  into  the  possession  of  the  quickest,  strongest, 
and  most  unscrupulous  men,  who  know  how  to  take  advan- 
tage of  the  marvellous  opportunities  of  the  modern  era. 
There  is  literally  nothing  left  to  the  working  men  and 
women  but  their  hands  and  the  power  of  association. 

Men  like  President  Eliot  and  the  Rev.  Dr.  Hillis,  who 
expressed  the  same  sentiments  as  President  Eliot,  however 
honest  they  may  be,  are  holding  the  hands  of  the  defenceless 


208  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

masses,  while  capitalism  robs  them  of  the  only  thing  they 
have  left — union. 

He  was  now  intensely  interested.  "  No  more  stirring 
case  could  ever  come,"  he  wrote  to  his  wife,  "and  this 
is  my  first  case. " 


CHAPTER  XXIII 
"MY  FIRST  CASE" 

THE  opening  of  the  arbitration  witnessed  a  striking 
scene.  On  the  platform  in  the  Chamber  of  the 
State  Superior  Court  at  Scranton,  presided  over  by 
Judge  Gray,  sat  the  members  of  the  Anthracite  Coal 
Strike  Commission.  Before  them  were  grouped  the 
representatives  of  the  two  vast  forces,  arrayed  in  the 
greatest  combat  of  labour's  history.  When  John 
Mitchell  arose  as  first  witness  to  state  the  case  of  his 
people,  he  faced  as  opponents  twenty-four  of  the 
ablest  attorneys  whom  corporate  wealth  could  secure. 
Rumours  had  reached  the  miners  of  the  vast  sums  ex- 
pended daily  in  fees  to  these  attorneys,  and  of  the 
large  force  of  specialists  engaged  in  the  work  of  pre- 
paration. But  rallied  around  Mitchell  was  a  little 
group  of  eleven  men,  full  of  zeal  for  a  great  cause. 
The  progress  of  the  case  is  reflected  in  Lloyd's 
hurried  notes  to  his  wife. 

Scranton,  Pa.,  Nov.  14.  ...  "Attorney"  Lloyd  made 
his  first  appearance  in  court  to-day — proud  that  it  was  in  an 
arbitration  court  and  for  a  working  man.  Mitchell  made  a 
fine  impression.  The  lawyers  on  the  other  side  thought  to 
trip  him  up  as  a  "miner."  They  asked  if  he  had  had  any 
other  occupation.  "No."  "You  studied  law?"  "Yes, 
at  night  while  working  in  the  mines ! "  .  .  . 
VOL.  11—14  209 


210  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

Nov.  15.  .  .  .  Now  I  begin  again  to  tell  you  what  the 
Secretary  of  the  Commission  has  just  told  us.  Mitchell's 
statement  impressed  them  tremendously.  "It  must  have 
been  edited  by  Mr.  Lloyd,"  one  of  them  said  in  their  private 
meeting  last  night.  "No,"  Bishop  Spaulding  said,  "that 
is  impossible.  It  contains  four  split  infinitives."  .  .  . 

Nov.  1 6.  .  .  .  Mitchell  is  a  wonder.  He  was  cross- 
examined  to-day  by  Wayne  MacVeagh,  and  he — Mitchell 
— threw  him — MacVeagh — down  time  after  time.  Even 
the  Commission  sometimes  so  far  forgot  themselves  as  to 
join  in  the  laugh.  Wayne  MacVeagh  asked  Mitchell 
whether  he  did  not  know  that  if  the  companies  raised  the 
wages  they  would  have  to  raise  the  price  of  coal,  and  that 
the  burden  would  therefore  fall  "on  the  bowed  back  of  the 
poor."  No,  Mitchell  said,  they  might  take  it  out  of  their 
profits  and  so  put  it  on  the  bowed  backs  of  the  rich.  Wayne 
MacVeagh  who  had  a  fondness  for  beginning  questions: — 
"Would  you  be  surprised  to  hear" — said  to  Mitchell, 
"Would  you  be  surprised  to  hear  that  in  17  years  none  of 
our  employees  has  made  any  complaint  to  the  company?" 
No,  Mitchell  said,  he  was  not  surprised  that  no  .complaint 
had  been  made  to  the  company;  if  there  had  been,  the  cause 
of  complaint  would  have  been  promptly  removed — meaning 
of  course  the  complainant,  whereat  the  crowd  howled.  But 
these  were  the  light  touches.  The  really  admirable  thing 
was  the  way  in  which  Mitchell  met  the  heavy  thrusts  of  the 
cross-examining  lawyers.  The  simple  fact  is  that  he  upheld 
his  case  at  every  point.  He  is  admirably  simple  and  straight- 
forward and  as  keen  as  any  one.  "He  is  a  good  wit- 
ness," Wayne  MacVeagh  said  to  me.  "Yes,"  I  said, 
"because  for  one  thing — he  is  a  good  man."  .  .  . 

The  public  displayed  the  liveliest  interest,  hundreds 
could  not  get  into  the  court  room. 

Nov.  1 8.  .  .  .  This  is  Sunday  but  it  has  not  been  a  rest 
day  for  us.  The  whole  contingent  has  been  hard  at  work. 


"My  First  Case"  211 

According  to  present  indications  we  shall  have  to  fight  every 
company  separately,  and  the  prospect  ahead  is  one  of 
appalling  complexity,  and  longevity — the  longevity  of  the 
case  perhaps  outlasting  that  of  the  combatants.  So  far 
everything  has  been  done  in  the  best  temper.  To-day 
there  was  the  first  intimation  of  a  new  development  in  the 
case  which  promises  something  so  fine  that  I  can  hardly 
believe  it  a  possibility.  I  can  tell  you  of  it,  but  only  as  a 
sacred  confidence.  Efforts  are  being  made  to  have  the 
Commission  attempt  conciliation,  and  effect  a  complete 
settlement  at  once  by  negotiation.  The  two  parties  are 
really  not  so  far  apart.  It  is  impossible  for  the  companies 
to  refuse  the  advance  of  wages  in  face  of  the  raises  being 
voluntarily  made  by  railroads  like  the  Pennsylvania  and 
the  New  York  Central.  Would  not  this  be  a  fine  thing  to 
the  credit  of  arbitration — that  the  parties  thus  brought 
together  spontaneously  betake  themselves  to  a  voluntary 
agreement  by  conciliation!  It  is  too  good  to  hope  for  but 
it  is  brooding.  One  of  the  happiest  phases  of  it  would  be 
that  I  could  get  home  that  much  sooner.  .  .  . 


The  secret  I  wrote  you  about  prospers.  We  spent  most 
all  last  evening,  not  to  say  last  night,  on  it.  .  .  .  It  was  a 
curious  sensation  to  see  the  duel  in  the  court  room  going 
on,  and  to  know  all  the  time  that  it  had  become  a  mock 
battle,  and  that  messengers  were  speeding  to  New  York, 
and  the  long-distance  wires  were  hot  with  negotiations  for  a 
settlement.  These  negotiations  look  very  promising,  so 
that  it  may  easily  be  that  this  thing  may  only  take  days 
instead  of  weeks  or  months.  Then  I  can  get  back  to  you, 
and  my  real  work  on  my  books. 

Darrow  is  doing  splendidly.  He  has  not  made  a  single 
false  move  on  the  case. 

During  a  very  dull  and  trying  cross-examination  to-day 
Mitchell,  who  for  the  first  time  had  begun  to  show  signs  of 
irritation, — and  justly, — softened,  and  became  smiling  and 


212  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

gentle  and  helpful  in  his  answers.  Why?  I  found  out  why 
and  I  think  it  is  the  finest  thing  I  have  found  in  Mitchell. 
He  had  become  conscious  that  his  questioner  had  become 
conscious  that  he  was  doing  his  work  very  badly,  and  he 
grew  sorry  for  him,  and  tried  to  make  things  easier  for  him. 
It  is  I  not  Mitchell  who  put  the  two  things  together.  I 
doubt  if  Mitchell  is  aware  that  his  manner  had  changed. 
But  he  told  me  that  he  noticed  at  last  what  a  hard  time  his 
opponent  was  having,  and  that  he  made  up  his  mind  to  let 
up  on  him.  "I  know  exactly  how  he  felt,"  Mitchell  said. 
"  I  have  felt  just  so  myself  when  I  knew  I  was  doing  some- 
thing like  making  a  speech  very  badly."  And  this  after 
Mitchell  himself  had  been  badgered  without  mercy  for 
three  days.  .  .  . 

We  had  our  pictures  taken  this  morning.  Commission 
and  Counsel  and  Mitchell  in  the  witness  chair.  I  would 
rather  be  in  that  picture  than  in  any  other  public  group  I 
can  conceive  of.  ... 

Monday.  .  .  .  All  goes  well  here;  the  work  of  negotiation 
is  necessarily  tedious.  .  .  .  Darrow  spent  Sunday  in  New 
York  with  Senator  Pettigrew.  Talking  with  Pettigrew 
about  some  scheme  he,  Darrow,  has  for  settling  the  poor'of 
Chicago  on  the  land,  Pettigrew  said,  "Why,  Lloyd  has 
worked  that  all  out  in  his  New  Zealand  book,"  and  went 
into  his  bedroom  and  got  Newest  England,  which  he  travels 
with  and  by,  and  read  Darrow  the  chapter  on  Cheviot. 
That  was  nice,  was  n't  it?  The  settlement  is  almost 
complete.  .  .  . 

Nov.  22.  What  I  foreshadowed  is  coming  to  pass.  We 
are  to  have  something  better  than  arbitration — conciliation. 
It  has  been  very  interesting,  really  very  exciting.  My  first 
case  has  been  a  rather  important  one.  Even  at  the  com- 
promise we  are  making,  we  win  $6,000,000  a  year  for 
150,000  clients.  Not  a  small  thing,  is  it?  All  have  been 
brought  to  agreement,  except  on  a  few  minor  matters.  It 
is  really  a  very  big  thing,  and,  as  it  is  ending,  bigger  than  an 


Cfl 


o 


"My  First  Case"  213 

award  before  the  Commission.  Last  evening,  we  spent 
with  the  Commission,  Wayne  MacVeagh  representing  Mor- 
gan who  controls  the  coal  companies,  and  Darrow,  Mitchell, 
and  I  representing  the  miners.  Now  I  must  stop"suddent. " 
Here  come  the  negotiators,  again. 

On  the  25th,  Mitchell,  Darrow,  and  Lloyd,  "the 
miners'  trinity,"  travelled  to  Washington  to  meet 
Wayne  MacVeagh.  While  the  negotiations  were  in 
full  swing  the  operators  in  session  in  New  York  tele- 
graphed that  they  preferred  to  go  on  with  the  hearings. 
This  was  grievously  disappointing  to  the  country  at 
large,  and  Darrow  and  Lloyd  were  outspoken  in  their 
denunciation  of  Mr.  Baer  as  responsible. 

Philadelphia,  Nov.  26.  I  am  writing  at  10.30  P.M.,  for 
the  .  .  .  reporters.  .  .  .  We  have  had  an  absolutely  bewil- 
dering day.  .  .  .  The  newspapers  will  give  you  the  story 
of  the  dramatic  surprise.  .  .  .  Baer  has  given  the  country 
another  taste  of  Baerism.  .  .  . 

He  now  went  to  New  York  and  Boston  to  confer  with 
leading  men. 

New  York.  ...  I  have  been  on  the  greatest  rush  you 
ever  saw  off  the  football  field.  .  .  . 

Dec.  2.  I  am  on  the  boat  going  back  unexpectedly  to 
Scranton,  taking  the  train  at  ten  minutes'  notice.  One 
reason  for  going  is  to  see  if  I  need  return  to  Boston  to  see 
Brandeis.  ...  I  have  been  busier  than  I  almost  ever 
dreamed  of  being  since  I  have  been  in  New  York.  I  have 
had  conferences  with  the  Journal's  lawyers,  and  with  Gen. 
Burnett,  the  U.  S.  District  Attorney  here,  and  others.  The 
net  result  .  .  .  appears  to  be  against  the  desirability  of 
going  into  the  trust  question.  It  would  be  very  difficult 
and  expensive  and  uncertain.  ...  It  is  nearly  up  to  the 


214  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

limit  of  my  endurance — this  being  away  from  you  when  you 
are  so  ill  and  weak. 

Scranton,  Dec.  3.  ...  This  is  the  melancholy  day  of  the 
renewal  of  arbitration  instead  of  conciliation.  All  the  great 
lawyers  are  coming  back,  and  even  Wayne  MacVeagh  who 
swore  he  would  never  return  is  here.  Darrow  and  I  have 
decided,  as  the  result  of  my  New  York  and  Boston  investi- 
gations, not  to  go  into  the  trust  and  monopoly  side  of  the 
question.  All  our  radical  friends  are  howling  at  us  to  go 
into  it;  but  it  is  useless  when  we  have  no  weapons.  Our 
Commission  has  no  power  to  summon  witnesses  or  books. 
.  .  .  Here  comes  the  Commission,  good-bye. 

Upon  resuming,  the  defence  poured  out  the  pitiful 
stories  of  the  miners'  grievances  before  the  Commission. 

Scranton,  Dec.  4.  ...  I  felt  triumphant  yesterday  be- 
cause our  first  woman  witness  was  put  on  the  stand,  and 
was  a  distinct  success.  She  was  a  miner's  wife,  and  told 
the  story  of  how  a  family  of  7  children  was  brought  up  on 
fortnightly  earnings  of  81  cents  to  $16.00  to  $20.00.  But 
it  was  as  Mitchell  foretold.  Her  gentility  could  not  reveal 
the  whole  truth.  She  wore  gloves  and  carried  a  white 
handkerchief.  She  had  told  us  the  night  before  that  she 
never  bought  more  than  one  pound  of  meat  at  a  time.  .  .  . 
But  she  would  not  confess  to  this  on  the  stand.  The  mine- 
owners  are  much  distressed  by  our  testimony  yesterday. 
They  think  it  "unfair."  But  Wayne  MacVeagh  thinks  it 
is  "  bully. "  We  have  a  little  boy  to  put  on  the  stand,  Andy 
Chippie,  12  years  old,  a  chubby  little  duckling  of  a  boy,  who 
ought  to  make  a  sensation.  His  father,  a  miner,  was  killed 
a  year  or  two  ago.  His  mother  has  four  younger  children. 
The  little  boy  was  put  to  work  by  his  mother  in  the  breaker 
before  the  legal  age.  The  company  had  said  to  his  mother, 
"  We  will  not  charge  you  any  rent."  But  the  moment  little 
Andy  began  working,  the  company  charged  up  against  this 
little  fellow  the  whole  back  rent.  And  we  saw  the  child's 


The  Breaker  Boy  and  His  Pay  Check. 

The  check  shows  that  he  worked  eight  hours  in  two  weeks,  at  4  cents 
an  hour,  and  the  32  cents  due  him  was  credited  by  the  Company  on 
his  mother's  rent  bill  for  $87.99. 

A  photograph  designed  by  Lloyd. 


"My  First  Case"  215 

fortnightly  statements  where  his  40  cents  a  day  was  charged 
off  against  the  $88.00  of  rent!  Did  you  ever  hear  of  any- 
thing like  that?  .  .  . 

Dec.  5.  ...  We  had  an  engineer  on  the  stand  this 
morning  who  often  worked  60  hours  continuously,  having 
to  handle  a  lever  on  which  depended  the  lives  of  a  cageful  of 
men,  who  would  be  dashed  to  death  if  for  one  instant  he 
relaxed  his  hold  or  slept  or  forgot.  Wayne  MacVeagh  is 
still  pushing  his  scheme  for  a  settlement  but  it  looks  dubious. 
We  have  now  learned  the  secret  of  last  week's  breakdown. 
Baer  broke  off  the  negotiations  because  he  wanted  "a 
vindication. "  He  was  willing  to  cause  all  the  loss,  and  run 
all  the  risk,  in  order  to  have  the  personal  satisfaction  to  be 
got  out  of  a  lot  of  evidence  about  the  violence  of  the  men. 
How  selfish  he  must  be,  and  how  unable  to  take  any  public 
view  of  his  duties.  .  .  . 

Court  Room,  Dec.  8.  ...  Mitchell  has  gone  to  New 
York  to  attend  the  Civic  Federation.  .  .  .  Darrow  agrees 
with  you  entirely  about  Mitchell's  triumphant  progress  to 
Spring  Valley.  Neither  does  he  like  any  more  than  I  his 
going  to  New  York  to  attend  the  Civic  Federation.  The 
little  fact  that  for  this  visit  to  New  York  he  bought  a  derby 
hat,  discarding  the  black  soft  felt  hat  by  which  he  is  uni- 
versally known,  illustrates  the  tendency  towards  conformity 
resulting  from  such  association,  and  likely  to  increase  and 
in  the  wrong  direction.  .  .  .  We  had  a  good  day  in  court. 
Every  one  begins  to  use  the  word  about  our  case  that  I  have 
been  using  from  the  start — dramatic.  It  is  that  which  tells. 

Dec.  9.  ...  We  had  a  great  time  this  morning.  We 
had  the  worst  story  yet.  We  had  an  old  man  on  the  stand, 
who  at  one  time  and  another  had  been  so  burned,  broken, 
cut,  blinded,  that  he  was  literally  a  wreck.  "  I  have  a  glass 
eye,"  he  said,  "but  I  can't  see  much  with  it."  He  had  a 
sick  wife,  an  old  mother,  a  lot  of  children,  one  or  two  of 
them  adopted,  "for  the  love  of  God";  he  was  evicted — 


216  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

refused  even  five  minutes'  grace — his  wife  died  as  a  result, 
and  he  could  only  say  as  to  the  old  mother,  100  years  old, 
"  I  am  not  sure  whether  she  is  alive  at  this  present  moment. 
The  priest  gave  her  the  last  service — extreme  unction — 
night  before  last. "  He  was  an  old  employee  and  tenant  of 
Markle's  and  his  only  offence  was  that  he  had  been  a  mem- 
ber of  the  relief  committee  to  distribute  help  to  the  poor. 
The  women  in  the  court  room  wept  as  the  old  man  told  his 
story.  Until  the  very  instant  he  said  his  wife  had  died, 
and  he  had  buried  her  only  the  day  before,  no  one  expected 
such  a  denouement.  Every  member  of  the  Commission 
was  deeply  affected — actually  upset.  Just  this  moment  we 
have  had  a  boy  who  is  clubbed  by  the  breaker  boss  whenever 
the  latter  feels  like  it. 

Dec.  10.  .  .  .  After  the  exciting  climax  of  yesterday, 
to-day  has  gone  on  quietly.  Our  sensation  to-day  was  a 
revelation  of  the  way  in  which  the  coal  operators  offered 
leaders  of  the  unions  tens  of  thousands  of  dollars  to  betray 
the  strikers,  by  bribing  them  to  get  resolutions  passed 
declaring  the  strike  hopeless.  Darrow  and  I  are  beginning 
to  be  afraid  that  our  supply  of  climaxes  will  run  out,  and 
we  are  thinking  perhaps  we  had  better  advertise  for  some 
job  lots  of  climaxes.  .  .  . 

Michael  Davitt  is  here  to-day  watching  the  proceedings, 
and  I  have  just  been  introduced  to  him.  He  is  a  fine 
thoughtful  looking  man,  and  must  be  extremely  intelligent 
because  he  knows  about  C,  W.  S.1  .  .  . 

Dec.  12.  .  .  .  Our  business  here  goes  on  well,  we  think, 
and  the  country  we  think  will  get  hotter,  as  with  the  coal 
famine  it  gets  colder.  If  there  were  nothing  else  in  the 
affair,  it  would  be  true  that  the  coal  men  had  committed  a 
gigantic  social  and  business  blunder  in  refusing  a  little 
10  per  cent,  advance,  and  bringing  on  the  strike  in  face  of 
the  greatest  business  activity  and  demand  for  coal  ever 
known.  .  .  . 

1  A  Country  without  Strikes. 


"My  First  Case"  217 

We  offered  as  witness  to-day  a  little  boy  too  little  to  be  a 
witness.  He  was  eight  years  old  but  only  about  five  years 
grown.  He  was  not  too  young  to  work  in  the  breaker;  he 
earned  62  cents  a  week.  He  hardly  came  up  above  the 
seat  of  the  witness  chair  as  he  stood  before  it.  He  could  n't 
tell  what  would  happen  to  him  if  he  told  a  lie,  and  the 
Chairman  ruled  him  out.  But  he  could  n't  rule  out  of  his 
mind  the  tragicomic  spectacle  of  the  little  wage-earner, 
smiling  and  blushing,  an  industrial  Tiny  Tim.  The  photo- 
graph I  designed  of  the  little  Andrew  Chippie  whose 
mother's  debt  was  taken  out  of  his  breaker  earnings  at  the 
rate  of  40  cents  a  day  has  made  a  hit.  It  is  being  sold  for 
the  benefit  of  the  boy  and  his  mother.  I  send  you  one.  He 
is  holding  his  wage  statement  up  in  front  of  him;  you  can 
see  the  $88.14  debt,  and  above  it  the  32  cents  he  made  that 
week;  8  hours  at  4  cents  an  hour.  That  was  my  idea — 
that  he  should  be  taken  showing  this  statement,  and 
Darrow  said,  "You  are  bright,  after  all."  All  the  Com- 
missioners are  taking  copies;  the  newspapers  have  printed 
it.  Judge  Gray  has  ordered  a  lot  of  toys  sent  him.  .  .  . 

Lloyd  carried  this  photograph  for  months  in  his 
pocket  and  drew  it  out  as  he  told  the  story  of  the 
strike. 

Many  .  .  .  can  recall  [said  Jane  Addams]  his  look  of 
mingled  solicitude  and  indignation  as  he  showed  this.  .  .  . 
He  insisted  that  the  simple  human  element  was  the  marvel 
of  the  Pennsylvania  situation,  sheer  pity  continually  break- 
ing through  and  speaking  over  the  heads  of  the  business 
interests. 

As  the  presentation  of  the  miners'  side  approached 
its  end,  Lloyd  attempted  to  lead  the  Commission  to 
consider  the  root  of  the  trouble — monopoly  in  the 
coal-fields.  In  his  earnest  plea  for  the  introduction 
of  this  evidence,  he  said  in  part: 


218  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

Such  rates  as  have  been  and  are  charged  go  to  the  very 
root  of  the  questions  at  issue  here  between  the  coal  com- 
panies and  their  men.  We  ask  the  Commission  to  receive 
this  evidence  because  it  shows  that  a  state  of  affairs  of 
deadly  import  to  labour  in  this  community  has  arisen  and 
how. 

A  state  of  having  practically  but  one  employer  from 
whom  to  obtain  that  necessity  of  life,  work,  to-day  exists. 
This  evidence  shows  that  almost  all  of  the  capitalists 
engaged  in  the  coal  business  have  been  welded  into  one 
combination  with  power  over  the  labouring  population  as 
supreme  as  that  over  would-be  competitors.  Power  con- 
trolled is  always  abused  and  this  power  is  no  exception,  and 
the  power  has  been  obtained  and  is  maintained  to-day  by 
this  discrimination  in  rates  which  we  desire  to  show. 

We  seek  to  prove  it  not  as  a  matter  of  railroad  economics, 
but  as  a  matter  of  labour  economics,  pertinent  to  the  issues 
here,  and  for  that  reason  we  ask  that  you  will  allow  us  to 
present  out  of  the  reports  of  the  companies  the  further 
evidence  we  have  to  offer  of  the  community  of  interests 
between  the  railroads  and  the  coal  companies,  that  is,  of 
industrial  monopoly. 

We  ask  you  to  take  cognisance  of  the  fact  that  an  un- 
broken line  of  evidence  for  nearly  forty  years  discloses  the 
transportation  and  the  mining  and  the  marketing  of  coal 
moving,  and  to-day  as  strongly  as  ever,  toward  an  ever  and 
ever  increasing  monopoly,  and  that  monopoly  applies  to  the 
working  men,  whom  it  oppresses  most  severely. 

You  have  to  decide  between  the  parties,  before  you  decide 
as  to  whether  an  advance  of  pay,  or  a  shortening  of  hours, 
shall  or  shall  not  be  given,  and  if  given,  how  much.  Nothing 
could  be  more  pertinent  to  your  consideration  of  this  matter 
than  proof  that  the  wages  and  hours  of  labour  and  terms  of 
employment  existing  in  these  industries  are  the  result,  not 
of  natural  economic  forces  playing  in  freedom,  but  of  the 
unnatural  combination  produced  by  force  and  the  violation 
of  law.  We  do  not  ask  you  to  find  that  this  is  the  fact,  but 


"My  First  Case"  219 

we  do  ask  you  to  take  cognisance  that  it  is  a  fact  of  this  situ- 
ation, that  this  has  been  found  to  be  so  by  every  official 
body  to  which  it  has  been  brought  either  by  the  people  or 
by  individuals  for  an  entire  generation. 

We  ask  the  Commission  to  allow  us  to  complete  our  offer 
of  proof  that,  through  the  natural  monopoly  of  anthracite 
coal  in  these  valleys,  and  the  unnatural  monopoly  of  mining, 
transportation,  and  marketing  which  has  been  superadded 
it  has  come  about  that  there  is  practically  but  one  employer 
of  labour,  and  this  employer,  as  employers  always  do  when 
they  have  such  a  power,  has  taken  full  advantage  of  this 
monopoly  that  has  resulted  therefrom,  that  the  wages  of 
labour  and  other  conditions  are  unnaturally  depressed  and 
that  in  your  award — this  is  our  point,  sir — that  in  your 
award  the  Commission  should  therefore  give  the  largest 
relief  in  their  power. 

He  wrote  to  his  wife: 

Dec.  15.  .  .  .  You  have  a  pretty  tired  old  man  to-night- 
I  worked  all  day  yesterday,  and  a  good  deal  of  the  night 
and  most  of  to-day  on  the  statement  Darrow  wanted  me  to 
make  to  the  Commission.  .  .  .  Every  trust  lawyer  was  on 
his  feet  against  me,  and  the  Commission,  too.  But  they 
did  not  quite  dare  shut  it  out,  for  every  one  knows  that  that 
is  what  the  country  wants.  So  for  two  hours  and  a  half  I 
held  the  stage. 

He  made  a  second  effort  to  introduce  the  evidence, 
assuring  the  Commission  that  it  would  take  only  twenty- 
five  minutes.  But  on  the  ground  of  expediting  and 
simplifying  its  findings,  the  Commission  refused.  There 
was  hope  that  it  might  still  be  admitted  in  the  closing 
arguments,  but  as  the  time  approached  that  was 
abandoned.  Lloyd  wrote  to  Louis  D.  Brandeis  of 
Boston,  who  had  been  selected  to  make  the  argument, 


220  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

since  he  himself  did  not  wish  to  make  a  plea  on  purely 
legal  grounds: 

The  Commission  have  developed  an  increasing  deter- 
mination not  to  allow  those  questions  to  be  entered  upon. 
It  has  gone  so  far  that  Gen.  Wilson,  when  acting  as  tempo- 
rary chairman,  was  absurd  enough  to  request  the  counsel 
not  even  to  use  the  word  "freights. "  Mr.  Darrow  and  the 
rest  of  us  are  therefore  quite  clear  that  in  presentation  of 
the  argument  .  .  .  those  subjects  would  be  barred  by  the 
Commission.  The  companies  have  so  far  cunningly  re- 
frained from  pleading  any  inability  to  meet  the  demands  of 
the  men,  thereby  keeping  the  door  closed  against  us  on  the 
above  questions.  This  is  a  disappointment  to  us,  because 
we  regard  a  discussion  of  the  situation  which  leaves  out 
these  elements  to  be  fundamentally  inadequate,  and  second 
because  we  very  much  enjoyed  the  prospect  of  having  you 
with  us  in  the  final  appearance. 

"But  the  fact  of  monopoly  though  shut  out  of  the 
door,"  Lloyd  said,  "came  back  through  the  cracks." 
In  excluding  this  evidence,  Chairman  Gray  said: 
"We  are  going  to  assume  that  they  are  able  to  pay 
fair  wages.  If  they  cannot,  they  had  better  get  out 
of  the  business."  Darrow  and  Lloyd  took  this  ruling 
as  far  more  favourable  than  the  admission  of  the 
testimony.  Lloyd  said: 

We  are  more  than  satisfied  to  forego  the  question  of 
profit  on  the  statement  made  by  the  Commission,  and  the 
principle  which  will  rule  them.  If  the  principle  of  the  living 
wage  is  to  be  considered,  that  the  workmen  are  to  be  paid  a 
fair  compensation  for  their  labour  irrespective  of  whether 
the  employer  has  large  profits  or  not,  it  is  entirely  satis- 
factory to  us,  and,  we  think,  to  the  miners  in  this  contro- 
versy and  to  the  country  at  large.  We  hope  this  will  be  a 
precedent  to  be  applied  in  future  arbitration.  We  shall 


"My  First  Case"  221 

expect  the  principle  to  work  both  ways.  When  the  capi- 
talists are  not  making  profits  we  shall  expect  to  see  efforts 
on  their  part  to  reduce  wages  resisted  on  that  same  principle. 

But  Lloyd's  work  over  the  evidence  was  not  in  vain. 
His  argument  in  support  of  its  pertinence  was  full  of 
suggestiveness,  and  being  read  by  the  country  stimu- 
lated enquiry  on  the  monopoly  side.  "We  have  at 
least  shown  the  country, "  he  wrote,  "that  we  recognise 
the  fundamental  character  of  this  issue  and  would  have 
expedited  it  if  we  could." 

Dec.  1 6.  .  .  .  We  closed  our  case  in  a  blaze  of  glory.  .  .  . 
We  have  proved  that  one  of  the  most  important  companies 
submitted  figures  of  earnings  to  the  Commission  as  of  one 
man,  when  really  six  men  shared  in  them.  .  .  .  The  meanest 
thing  about  it  was  that  they  did  this  to  asperse  the  love  of 
the  father  for  his  child,  and  to  back  up  their  assertion  that 
he  had  let  his  little  girl  of  13  work  all  night  in  the  silk  mills 
because  of  greed,  not  of  necessity.  .  .  . 

At  the  Christmas  adjournment  the  coal  famine  was 
worse  than  ever.  Conventions  and  mass  meetings  were 
held  everywhere.  Trains,  factories,  schools  stopped. 
The  incompetence  which  Lloyd  so  often  averred  was 
a  leading  attribute  of  our  great  corporations  became 
apparent.  Carloads  of  coal  containing  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  tons  stood  blocked  outside  the  freezing 
cities.  In  many  cases  law-abiding  people  were  forced 
in  desperation  to  take  coal  that  did  not  belong  to  them. 
At  Arcola,  Illinois,  an  organised  body  of  leading 
citizens  seized  a  train-load,  sold  it  at  the  highest  price, 
and  handed  the  proceeds  to  the  railroad,  the  owner. 
Lloyd  wrote  of  this  and  like  instances  in  the  new  labour 
paper,  Boyces  Weekly,  of  which  he  was  an  editor, 


222  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

commenting  ominously  on  the  new  phrase  then  be- 
coming current,  "the  higher  property. " 

Mitchell  appealed  a  second  time  to  the  miners  to 
increase  their  output,  but  again  came  the  answer  that 
they  could  not  do  so,  because  of  a  lack  of  cars.  To  a 
reporter  Lloyd  burst  out  indignantly : 

I  had  only  been  in  Chicago  for  twelve  hours  when  I 
was  informed  by  business  men  that  they  could  only  get  a 
supply  of  coal  to  last  one  day.  The  owner  of  one  of  the 
largest  plants  in  the  city  said  he  might  have  to  shut  up 
his  place  at  any  time.  The  strange  thing  is  that  they  can- 
not get  either  bituminous  or  anthracite.  It  shows  me  that 
the  operators  are  not  capable  of  handling  the  business  that 
has  been  intrusted  to  them  by  the  public.  Here  we  are  in 
the  centre  of  the  greatest  coal  region  in  the  world,  pur 
railway  facilities  are  unequalled,  labour  is  a  drug  on  the 
market,  and  yet  we  must  suffer  for  coal. 

When  asked  what  he  would  propose  Lloyd  replied: 

The  American  people  are  long  suffering,  but  they  have  a 
habit  of  taking  a  short-cut  when  they  are  pressed.  When 
the  anthracite  strike  interfered  with  business  and  comfort, 
public  opinion  became  so  acute  that  President  Roosevelt 
was  forced  to  act.  The  lawyers  for  the  coal  operators  said 
that  arbitration  was  unconstitutional,  that  property  rights 
should  not  be  interfered  with.  Yet  arbitration  is  a  fact. 
I  believe  that  the  people  of  Illinois  will  be  roused  into  action 
before  long  and  then  Gov.  Yates  will  have  to  take  a  hand  in 
the  situation  here.  • 

Public  opinion  was  indeed  reaching  the  breaking 
point.  Terrible  catastrophes  were  impending.  Hund- 
reds of  lives  were  being  sacrificed.  New  York  and 
Ohio  indicted  the  coal  corporations  for  violations  of  the 

1  The  Chicago  Journal,  December  24,  1902. 


"  My  First  Case  "  223 

anti-trust  law.  Congress  arranged  to  remove  the  duty 
on  coal.  In  unexpected  quarters  came  the  suggestion 
of  the  government's  operating  the  coal  mines  for  the 
public  benefit. 

Philadelphia,  Jan.  6,  1903.  .  .  .  The  hearings  have  begun 
where  they  left  off — with  recitals  of  violence  by  the  union 
men.  So  far  little  damage  has  been  done  to  our  side.  The 
most  important  witness  on  the  other  side  has  been  the 
sheriff  of  one  of  the  principal  coal  counties  who  had  to 
admit  a  great  deal  that  was  damaging  to  his  own  side,  as 
that  he  had  found  the  people  generally  law-abiding.  .  .  . 
Mitchell,  in  Darrow's  absence,  cross-examined  the  witness, 
and  did  it  well,  putting  a  new  feather  in  his  cap.  Jane 
Addams  told  Mr.  Durland  that  when  she  lunched  a  few 
days  ago  with  Roosevelt,  he  could  talk  of  nothing  but 
Mitchell.  He  said  that  at  the  conference  at  the  White 
House  with  the  coal  presidents  they  got  angry,  he  behaved 
very  badly  himself,  and  that  Mitchell  was  the  only  one  who 
kept  his  temper  and  his  head.  We  think  from  a  quite 
noticeable  difference  in  Judge  Gray's  manner  and  remarks 
that  he,  too,  has  been  lunching  during  the  recess  with  the 
President  and  we  are  correspondingly  hopeful.  .  .  . 

The  Colonial,  Philadelphia,  Jan.  8.  ...  I  am  expected 
to  make  a  speech  in  New  York — Brooklyn — Saturday 
night,  on  Progress  Abroad.  I  think  I  will  go.  Darrow  is 
to  be  there.  The  eating  at  our  new  place  is  very  good.  .  .  . 
As  I  found  the  place,  I  hope  it  will  be  satisfactory.  At  any 
rate  it  saves  the  miners  about  $150  a  week. 

Our  testimony  goes  on  in  pretty  good  shape.  We  have 
just  had  a  shocking  story  of  a  very  intelligent  man,  a  natural 
leader,  who  has  been  blacklisted  since  1887.  But  the 
Commission  seemed  less  agitated  by  the  demise  of  his 
sacred  right  to  work  than  by  that  of  non-union  men.  .  .  . 

Jan.  10.  ...  I  go  to-night  with  Darrow  to  speak  at  a 


224  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

meeting  of  the  Radical  Democracy — think  of  it!  I  am 
going  to  tell  them  that  if  Jefferson  were  alive  to-day  he 
would  not  be  a  Jeff ersonian  Democrat  of  1 903  but  1953.  .  .  . 

Brooklyn,  Jan.  n.  .  .  .  I  am  lonesome  and  homesick 
without  you.  Why  are  we  born  with  hearts  to  be  tortured 
so — as  lovers,  and  all.  Why  cannot  our  high  noons  stand 
still?  High  noons  of  the  June  of  life — why  must  we  always 
be  pushed  on  down  through  the  afternoon  towards  the 
night,  and  when  the  night  comes  where  shall  we  wake? 

Be  sure  to  keep  ordering  coal  until  enough  has  been  accumu- 
lated to  make  you  safe.  ...  I  wish  I  were  through  this  job 
here.  I  can't  really  see  that  I  am  doing  any  good — or  not 
much,  and  I  can't  bear  the  time  of  which  so  little  is  left 
slipping  by  with  my  own  work  undone.  ...  I  want  you  to 
push  the  accumulation  of  coal,  and  also  to  order  down  the 
cord  wood  from  High  wood.  Get  enough  to  last  until 
spring.  Also, — don't  laugh  at  this — get  in  some  pro- 
visions, two  or  three  barrels  of  flour,  etc.  There  is  no 
telling  how  far  the  stoppage  of  wheels  may  go — and  at  any 
rate  these  precautions  will  cost  nothing.  .  .  . 

I  have  not  yet  been  able  to  do  a  thing  about  my  argument. 
I  am  not  adapted  to  this  kaleidoscopic  life.  I  feel  dis- 
tracted, adrift.  .  .  .  How  Darrow  keeps  the  threads  .  .  . 
I  cannot  imagine.  .  .  . 

I  don't  seem  to  have  much  "go"  in  me.  For  instance, 
I  have  .  .  .  the  opportunity  to  make  an  argument  before 
the  Commission,  but  I  cannot  collect  myself,  nor  get  up 
any  interest  in  it.  ...  I  really  wish  I  were  at  home  at 
work  on  my  books;  with  you  and  the  dear  home.  .  .  . 

I  think  the  bad  air  of  the  court  has  been  getting  the  best 
of  me.  But  I  have  had  practically  the  last  of  it.  I  begin 
this  morning  the  condensation  of  some  of  the  testimony  for 
Darrow,  and  the  preparation  of  my  own  argument.  I  am 
to  speak  for  about  two  hours,  preluding  Darrow.  ... 


"My  First  Case"  225 

Jan.  1 6.  I  am  sending  you  the  souvenir  of  the  dinner  we 
attended  last  night  at  the  Clover  Club — the  famous  High 
Jinks  Club  of  Philadelphia,  if  not  of  America.  .  .  .  The 
fun  was  great;  Mitchell  made  the  best  speech  of  them  all. 
He  is  a  wonderful  man;  he  captured  them  first  with  his  fun, 
and  then  with  his  serious  points.  Two  of  the  Coal  Strike 
Commission  were  overcome  by  the  crowd  and  had  to 
abandon  their  speeches.  Darrow  and  I  think  we  will  start 
a  club  like  it  in  Chicago.  ...  I  sat  .  .  .  opposite  a  man 
whom  I  skinned  alive  in  Wealth  Against  Commonwealth, 
...  I  wonder  if  he  knew  me.  Another  of  the  guests  was 

the  Mayor  A ,  who  threw  away  the  envelope  from  John 

Wanamaker,  containing  the  offer  of  $2,500,000  and  3  cent 
fares  for  the  franchise  which  the  Mayor  was  determined  to 
give  for  nothing  to  the  old  corporation.  .  .  .  I  go  to  Boston 
next  week  to  speak  in  Faneuil  Hall  on  Some  Democracies 
and  Some  Industries.  .  .  . 

Jan.  20.  I  have  just  finished  preparing  my  speech  for 
Boston  to-morrow  night,  and  hard  work  it  has  been.  .  .  . 

Jan.  22.  ...  The  speech  last  night  did  not  go  so  well  as 
at  Brooklyn.  It  was  much  better,  I  had  added  some  really 
good  things.  But  the  announcements  had  been  mis- 
managed and  the  audience  .  .  .  was  small  and  cold.  It 
daunted  me,  and  I  could  only  struggle  through,  hating  the 
sound  of  my  own  voice.  I  believe  I  '11  speak  no  more,  but 
read.  The  best  effect  I  ever  got  from  an  audience  was 
when  I  read — once  in  addressing  the  Federation  of  Labor 
in  Chicago.  The  confidence  with  which  I  read  is  reflected 
back  to  me  from  the  audience.  .  .  .  Mead  spoke  warmly 
of  the  speech.  .  .  . 

The  Colonial,  Philadelphia,  Jan.  22.  ...  Here  I  am 
back  at  my  table.  .  .  .  My  little  room,  a  trifle  dreary  with 
its  ironing-board  table,  and  litter  of  papers  and  documents, 
looked  like  home  because  there  was  a  letter  from  you  on  the 
mantelpiece.  .  .  . 

VOL.    II — IS 


226  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

Jan.  24.  ...  Darrow  has  done  the  handsome  thing 
about  the  argument.  He  has  given  me  the  point  of  union 
recognition  and  trade  agreement  for  my  special  theme. 
This  involves  a  good  deal  of  work — which  suits  me — and  is 
also  the  most  important  theme  of  all.  Success  in  that 
demand  means  success  soon  or  late  in  all  the  others.  I 
speak  to-morrow  before  the  Ethical  Society  here,  and  the 
following  Sunday  before  the  Henry  George  Society.  .  .  . 

Jan.  25.  ...  I  am  just  back  from  my  lecture  at  the 
Ethical — the  paper  the  Book  Lover's  rejected.  It  went 
very  well  tho  the  audience  was  small.  I  speak  again  this 
afternoon  about  William  Morris  to  an  audience  of  about 
500.  ...  I  feel  tolerably  sound  but  not  very  lively.  I 
think  partly  this  thing  is  tiring  me  a  little  because  it  does 
not  go  to  the  bottom  of  the  cussedness.  Ask  Fraulein  to 
send  me  the  best  of  the  Co-operative  newspapers.  .  .  . 

Feb.  i.  ...  Mr.  Darrow  to-day  sprung  a  sensation  on 
me.  He  wants  me  to  make  the  opening  argument — that 
involves  a  synopsis  of  the  whole  situation,  and  all  we  have 
proved  or  sought  to  prove.  I  would  have  just  seven  days  to 
prepare  it  in !  I  am  going  to  make  up  my  mind  to-morrow 
morning.  ...  If  you  get  the  scrappiest  little  notes  this 
week  it  is  only  because  I  am  absolutely  overwhelmed  with 
work.  Darrow's  unexpected  request  .  .  .  has  entirely 
floored  me.  .  .  . 

Feb.  2.  ...  I  have  come  to  the  Walton  to  get  a  quiet 
room  in  the  busiest  hotel  in  Philadelphia!  I  have  been 
giving  my  Newest  England  lecture  to-night  in  a  horribly 
ventilated  room  to  a  lot  of  single-taxers,  and  am  properly 
exhausted.  .  .  . 

Feb.  5.  ...  You  will  be  disappointed  in  my  argument 
if  you  think  of  it  as  a  "great  effort."  It  cannot  be  that 
under  the  circumstances — it  is  merely  a  presentation  of  the 
case  for  a  trade  agreement  between  the  companies  and  their 


"  My  First  Case  "  227 

men — for  the  recognition  of  the  union,  in  fact.  I  will  do 
the  best  I  can,  but  I  cannot  make  it  a  "great  effort." 
Baer  is  going  to  make  the  closing  argument  for  the  barons. 
Darrow  follows  and  will  vivisect  him.  ...  I  shall  be  glad 
when  this  is  over.  .  .  . 

Feb.  6.  ...  Here  I  am  in  the  worst  scrape  of  my  life. 
A  two  hours'  argument  to  prepare  for  Monday — two  days — 
and  all  the  arrangements  about  my  stenographer  have 
broken  down.  Whew!  .  .  . 

Feb.  7.  ...  I  went  to  New  York  last  night  to  speak 
before  the  Cooper  Institute,  and  had  a  beautiful  time.  I 
have  come  back  a  little  tired,  to  find  that  the  stenographer 
to  whom  I  entrusted  my  work  yesterday  has  made  an 
almost  complete  botch  of  it.  It  is  hard !  .  .  . 

When  the  time  came,  Lloyd  quietly  and  with  intense 
earnestness  spoke  brave  words  in  that  council  chamber. 
He  summoned  an  array  of  facts  proving  the  success 
of  the  trade  agreement,  and  outlined  general  principles 
which  experience  had  endorsed.  At  one  point  in  his 
speech  an  interruption  from  Judge  Gray  allowed  him 
to  clear  an  obscure  point,  and  his  remarks  were  widely 
printed.  He  was  saying: 

It  is  not  the  non-union  man  that  the  union  fears,  but  the 
"scab,"  the  strike-breaker  by  trade,  who  lives  by  getting 
odd  jobs  of  industrial  assassination  at  high  wages  and  loafs 
between  whiles  on  the  theory  that  it  is  better  to  have  loafed 
and  lost  than  never  to  have  loafed  at  all.  It  is  the  renegade 
to  the  interests  of  his  class,  the  ingrate,  who  will  take  the 
better  hours  and  higher  wages,  like  some  of  the  witnesses 
in  this  case,  though  they  confess  that  they  would  not  move 
a  step  to  assist  the  struggle  of  their  fellows  to  win  them, 
men  who  do  not  care  who  sinks  so  long  as  they  swim.  .  .  . 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  While  you  are  on  that  interesting 
subject  .  .  .  what  have  you  to  say  of  those  who,  being 


228  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

non-union  men,  refuse  to  desist  from  work,  who  prefer  to 
continue  at  work  through  the  strike,  in  the  exercise  of  the 
right  they  suppose  they  have  to  do  so?  .  .  . 

MR.  LLOYD:  Of  course  in  doing  that  they  are  strictly 
within  their  legal  rights,  but  to  me  they  seem  to  violate  a 
moral  duty  of  the  highest  sanctity,  which  is  that  a  man 
must  do  what  he  can  to  help  along  a  necessary  struggle  for 
the  elevation  of  his  own  class  and  of  society  at  large. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  Well,  are  such  men  protected  by  the 
union,  those  who  prefer  to  continue  at  work,  in  the  exercise 
of  what  you  concede  to  be  their  right  to  do  so? 

MR.  LLOYD:  The  union  certainly  withdraws  no  legal 
protection  from  them.  They  are  not  protected  by  the 
union  from  being  visited  with  that  obloquy  which  properly 
falls  upon  a  man  who  will  not  join  in  a  common  effort  for 
the  common  good.  I  should  class  this  man  precisely  with 
the  Loyalists  in  the  American  Revolution.  I  certainly 
characterise  the  strike  as  an  industrial  war,  as  an  incident 
in  a  great  uprising. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  Calling  it  an  industrial  war  and  using 
that  figure  of  speech,  you  do  not  quite  carry  it,  do  you,  to 
the  extent  of  likening  it  in  all  respects  to  a  war? 

MR.  LLOYD:     No,  indeed. 

THE  CHAIRMAN:  In  our  theory,  there  is  only  one  war- 
making  power  and  that  is  the  great  Union  represented  by 
the  Government  of  society,  and  they  tolerate  no  wars — 
strictly  wars — inside  of  their  influence  or  sphere.  We 
may,  for  the  sake  of  rhetoric  or  analogy,  speak  of  a  war,  but 
there  can  be  no  war  tolerated,  in  the  proper  sense,  within 
any  peaceful  community  governed  by  law.  .  .  . 

Horace  Traubel  wrote  of  this  occasion1: 

.  .  .  He  stopped  reading,  looked  the  Judge  in  the  eye, 
and  answered  at  once  and  answered  straight.  It  was  an 
impressive  incident.  Late  afternoon.  Only  a  few  half- 

1  The  Conservator,  January,  1910. 


"My  First  Case"  229 

dimmed  lights  in  the  room.  Lloyd  reading  his  plea  in  a 
musical  voice.  The  interruption.  The  Judge  leaning  over 
the  bench  and  down  to  Lloyd.  The  unequivocal  answer. 
The  Judge's  relapse  in  his  chair  and  smiling  nod  to  Lloyd,  as 
if  to  say:  "I  am  satisfied."  I  shall  never  forget  it. 

In  no  uncertain  words  came  his  answer  to  the  indict- 
ment of  violence  during  the  strike.  He  laid  it  in  the 
main  upon  those  who  had  refused  to  arbitrate. 

The  denial  of  arbitration,  the  contemptuous  and  cruel 
reference  of  a  whole  people  to  starvation  as  a  judge  was 
itself,  a  monstrous  act  of  violence.  The  far  less  immoral 
physical  violence  that  followed,  what  there  was  of  it,  was 
precisely  what  would  have  been  foretold  by  any  student  of 
human  nature. 

Fearlessly  he  spoke.  Baer  was  there  listening,  present 
for  only  the  second  time.  Lloyd  scored  the  masters  in 
their  policy  of  claiming  the  right  to  make  both  sides 
of  the  bargain,  their  own  and  the  miners',  and  calling 
the  arrangement  a  contract.  "Hypocrisy  could  go  no 
further, "  he  said,  "it  is  not  even  gentlemanly. " 

The  arrangements  made  under  which  the  anthracite 
miners  have  been  working  are  not  contracts.  They  could 
have  been  broken  without  legal  or  moral  fault.  The  pay- 
ments made  under  them  were  not  payments  in  full.  Under 
the  doctrines  of  the  law,  the  victims  of  this  duress,  with  a 
just  judge,  could  recover  any  additional  amount  that  they 
could  show  their  labour  to  have  been  worth. 

This  absolutism  had  brought  not  only  "the  hard, 
very  hard,  coal  region"  but  the  whole  country  to  the 
verge  of  ruin,  but  in  doing  so  it  had  broken  down  as 
merchant,  miner,  diplomatist,  profit-maker. 


230  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

It  proved  itself  incompetent  in  every  forecast,  every 
negotiation,  every  enterprise.  .  .  .  These  antediluvian 
captains  of  industry,  who  call  themselves  masters,  walk  on 
Market  Street  or  on  Wall  Street  as  if  it  were  Mount  Ararat, 
and  they  were  just  landed  from  the  Ark  [Laughter]. 
Thanks  to  their  incompetency,  the  supply  of  fire  in  our  age 
of  fire  has  been  so  disturbed  that  at  least  two  years  will  pass 
before  it  becomes  normal  again.  Their  industrial  sagacity 
has  taken  their  industry  and  all  .industry  away  from  its 
natural  foundations  on  the  everlasting  hills  and  put  it  on 
the  thermometer  and  the  weather-vane,  where  a  south 
wind  means  life,  a  north  wind  means  death. 

The  country  wants  another  regime.  It  wants  coal.  It 
wants  peace.  Coal  can  be  had  only  by  peace,  and  peace 
can  be  had  only  by  justice.  Give  these  miners  here  a  voice 
in  the  management  of  their  own  labour. 

He  told  the  operators  that  the  conflict  had  proved 
that  no  one  set  of  men  had  brains  or  energy  enough  to 
go  around  all  sides  in  any  business.  "Industry,  like 
government,"  he  said,  "demands  all  the  abilities,  all 
the  activities,  all  the  good-will,  all  the  co-operation 
of  all — of  labour  and  capital,  of  producer  and  consumer, 
of  individual  and  community."  He  told  them  that 
their  days  of  supremacy  were  over,  called  them  "the 
ex-masters."  He  reminded  his  hearers  of  the  mighty 
stream  of  loyalty  to  each  other  and  their  leaders 
which  flowed  among  the  miners,  a  stream  which  could 
be  turned  to  a  vast  force  in  the  management  of  their 
industry.  How  long,  he  asked,  would  men  be  considered 
good  business  men  who  made  this  force  destructive  by 
denying  it  an  outlet  ? 

The  argument  deeply  impressed  all,  even  the  invin- 
cible Mr.  Baer.  At  its  close  he  and  Lloyd  were  intro- 
duced and  exchanged  a  few  friendly  words.  "You  are 


"My  First  Case"  231 

considerable  of  an  optimist,  Mr.  Lloyd,"  Mr.  Baer 
was  heard  to  remark  as  they  parted.  Judge  Gray 
shook  hands  warmly  with  Lloyd,  and  said  that  his 
speech  was  the  finest  piece  of  English  he  had  ever 
listened  to.  "I  did  not  lose  a  single  word. "  As  for  his 
co-workers,  Lloyd  did  not  disappoint  them.  Horace 
Traubel  wrote: 

Feb.  9,  '03. 
DEAR  LLOYD: 

Words  could  do  little  for  me  to-day.  I  could  not  tell 
you  what  I  thought  and  felt.  You  did  the  big  thing  which 
I  expected  you  to  do.  You  did  not  surprise  me.  All 
seemed  so  natural.  I  am  just  beginning  to  really  get  the 
lesson  you  projected.  You  were  very  impressive.  There 
was  an  epochal  quality  in  your  utterance.  I  felt  it  leading 
me  way  off.  in  the  future.  You  prophesied.  But  you  still 
kept  on  the  earth.  We  felt  dignified  in  your  treatment  of 
the  theme.  I  became  one  of  the  miners  for  whom  you  made 
the  appeal.  And  that  miner,  the  snag,  became  the  new 
democrat.  And  I  found  the  real  America  at  last  born  in  my 
delayed  life.  I  do  not  know  what  you  meant  to  the  court. 
But  I  am  beginning  to  see  and  feel  what  you  meant  to 
me.  .  .  . 

"Unexpectedly  it  was  triumphant,  .  .  ."he  tele- 
graphed to  his  wife,  and  wrote : 

Philadelphia,  Feb.  10.  .  .  .  My  telegram  .last  night  will 
have  told  you  that  it  is  all  over,  and  successfully.  And  I 
hope  it  will  help  bridge  the  letterless  gap  into  which  I 
dropped  during  my  bitter  days  of  struggle  with  incom- 
petent stenographers.  I  had,  at  last,  to  dismiss  them  all 
and  write  it  out  in  longhand.  I  kept  at  work  Friday  night 
until  three  o'clock.  I  tried  two  or  three  times  to  go  to  bed, 
but  new  ideas  would  keep  popping  up,  and  these  proved  to 
be  the  best  part  of  my  speech.  .  .  .  Baer  was  right  behind 


232  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

me,  and  when  I  sat  down  he  turned  with  humorous  anxiety 
to  Darrow  and  said,  "  Darrow,  are  there  any  more  Chicago 
men  coming  on  here  to  make  speeches?"  He  and  I  talked 
very  pleasantly.  I  had  quite  an  ovation  in  the  court 
room  when  I  finished.  The  lawyers  on  the  other  side 
congratulated  me  as  warmly  as  the  people  on  our  side.  And 
the  Commission  were  very  much  interested,  poor  fellows. 
Darrow  said,  "  You  surprised  me,  even  me,  and  you  had  to 
do  pretty  well  to  do  that!  The  best  of  it  is,"  he  said,  "it 
counts."  .  .  . 

Germantown,  Feb.  n.  .  .  .  I  found  myself  so  tired  out, 
even  after  a  day  of  rest,  that  I  telephoned  and  invited  myself 
out  here.  .  .  .  Jamie1  heard  me  speak;  he  was  very  enthu- 
siastic, he  said  that  speech  would  be  read  long  after  I  was 
gone.  I  have  your  letter  "whooping  me  out"  for  want 
of  confidence.  Well,  the  fiasco  of  having  no  competent 
stenographer  did  me  up.  .  .  .  Traubel  .  .  .  has  caught 
exactly  the  innermost  of  it!  ...  I  was  glad  Judge  Gray 
asked  me  those  questions;  I  had  thought  those  points  out, 
and  they  are  the  most  troublesome  in  the  whole  prob- 
lem. .  .  . 

Feb.  13.  ...  X.  went  with  me  to  see  the  Commission 
this  morning  and  hear  Baer  speak.  Baer  went  at  me 
hammer  and  tongs,  ridiculed  New  Zealand,  said  I  was  a 
"philanthropist  from  Chicago,  one  of  those  who  could  not 
do  things  themselves,  but  could  tell  others  how  to  do 
them."  He  really  made  no  hole  in  what  I  said,  but  was 
clever.  ...  I  am  very  glad  this  long  experience  is  over. 
It  has  been  very  valuable,  but  sometimes  tedious.  Bishop 
Spaulding  told  one  of  the  Commission  that  my  speech 
would  live  as  the  gem  of  the  whole  proceeding.  So  you  see. 
.  .  .  Soon  this  cruel  war  will  be  over.  .  .  . 

Saturday,  on  the  cars  to  Chicago. — All  day  yesterday  I 
sat  in  court  listening  to  Darrow's  closing  plea.  It  was 

1  Mr.  James  Dodge,  son  of  Mary  Mapes  Dodge. 


"  My  First  Case  "  233 

great.  He  began  the  day  before  with  the  sympathies  of 
the  Commission  I  thought,  perhaps  jealously,  almost  openly 
against  him.  But  he  closed  with  their  undivided  interest 
and  admiration.  Many  of  the  capitalist  women  were  quite 
carried  away.  One  very  charming  one  came  to  him  and 
said:  "  I  am  convinced  now  if  never  before."  I  will  send 
you  the  full  report  as  soon  as  possible,  and  also  my  own. 
Baer  attacked  me  quite  savagely  as  a  dreamer.  But  Dar- 
row  said  in  his  peroration,  "Your  day,  Mr.  Lloyd,  and 
mine  will  come  some  day."  Darrow  is  a  man  of  iron 
nerves  and  steel  strength.  He  went  out  to  dinner  after 
making  that  day  and  a  half  speech.  Mitchell  came  on  to 
hear  him.  I  wish  he  could  have  heard  mine.  I  was 
gratified  that  my  speech  proved  so  nearly  a  complete 
statement  of  our  case,  that  it  was  almost  like  a  syllabus  of 
Darrow's.  As  I  am  travelling  West  I  am  preparing  for  my 
speech  of  Monday  at  the  Auditorium.  Just  as  soon  now  as 
I  can  I  must  get  at  my  Switzerland  work.  ... 

On  the  twelfth  of  February  Baer  pronounced  to 
the  Commission  the  words,  "We  surrender"  —  "the 
sweetest  words,"  said  Lloyd  later,  "that  any  lover 
of  justice  ever  heard.  It  was  not  George  III.,  it  was 
'George  the  Last,'  as  Darrow  calls  him."  The  closing 
arguments  over,  the  Commission  adjourned,  to  meet 
later  in  private  to  consider  its  award.  It  had  won 
golden  opinions  from  the  people.  In  dismissing  counsel, 
Judge  Gray  said: 

It  is  due  to  counsel  and  those  who  represented  both  sides 
that  I  should  say  that  we  leave  you,  or  rather,  you  leave  us, 
with  a  feeling  on  our  part  of  regret  that  the  long  association 
which  has  been  so  pleasant  to  us  is  about  to  be  broken.  It 
speaks  well  for  counsel  on  both  sides  that  no  unpleasant 
episode  has  occurred — nothing  that  would  mar  the  situation 
in  which  reasonable  men  and  citizens  of  a  great  country 


234  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

find  themselves  in  mutually  endeavouring  to  arrive  at  just 
conclusions  and  a  just  verdict  in  a  great  controversy. 

At  miners'  headquarters  the  little  group  pitted 
against  the  corporation  attorneys  had  had  a  tremen- 
dous strain,  with  days  and  nights  of  drudgery,  but 
consciousness  of  the  grandeur  of  their  common  cause 
had  bound  them  together  in  affection.  Lloyd  was 
warmly  human  through  it  all,  in  his  tender  suscepti- 
bility to  duty,  in  his  humility  in  drudgery,  his  boyish 
enthusiasm,  his  comradeship.  Over  all  in  the  group 
his  personality  exercised  its  beneficent  sway. 

He  was  the  heart  and  soul  of  the  movement  to  better  the 
condition  of  the  miners  [said  Walter  Weyl],  but  the  part 
that  he  played,  although  immensely  important,  was  entirely 
modest,  and  he  seemed  always  to  efface  himself.  I  have 
never  met  any  one  who  had  so  ...  simple  and  beautiful 
an  unegotistic  attitude  toward  life. 

I  can  truly  say  [wrote  a  young  member  of  the  group  in 
1903]  that  no  influence  at  work  in  my  life  during  the  past 
year  was  so  potent  as  his.  .  .  .  He  was  the  only  man  I 
ever  knew  of  whom  I  could  repeat  the  third  stanza  of 
Browning's  Epilogue  to  Asolando. 

"One  who  never  turned  his  back  but  marched  breast  forward, 

Never  doubted  clouds  would  break, 

Never  dreamed,  though  right  were  worsted,  wrong  would  triumph, 
Held  we  fall  to  rise,  are  baffled  to  fight  better, 
Sleep  to  wake. " 

Mitchell  was  won  by  Lloyd's  thoughtfulness.  What 
with  midnight  conferences,  incessant  journeyings,  and 
the  appalling  responsibility,  Mitchell  was  worn  out 
in  mind  and  body. 

I  personally  [wrote  Mitchell]  shall  never  forget  how  he 
came  to  my  headquarters  at  Wilkesbarre.  .  .  .  He  used  to 


"My  First  Case"  235 

come  and  ask  me  to  go  walking  with  him  along  the  banks  of 
the  Susquehanna  River.  He  thought  I  did  n't  know  what 
he  wanted  me  to  go  for.  He  would  throw  his  arm  about  my 
shoulder,  and  as  we  walked  along  would  tell  me  of  his 
travels  in  Europe;  of  his  visits  to  different  parts  of  the 
world;  of  his  investigations  there;  of  the  conditions.  .  .  . 
His  purpose  was  to  divert  my  mind  from  the  troubles  of  the 
miners.  He  knew  I  was  tired,  knew  I  was  worn  out.  Of 
course,  I  knew  why  he  did  it,  but  I  did  n't  tell  him.  .  .  . 
During  the  time  the  Commission  was  in  session,  there 
was  no  service  Mr.  Lloyd  was  not  willing  and  anxious  to 
perform.  He  would  offer  to  run  an  errand  or  to  make  the 
most  difficult  .  .  .  investigations  into  questions  that  re- 
quired technical  knowledge  and  days  and  nights  of  thought 
and  study.  .  .  .  There  was  no  task  too  difficult,  no  work 
too  lowly  for  him  to  do.  .  .  .  His  personal  character,  his 
beautiful  life  should  be  inspirations  to  every  man  and  to 
every  woman  who  love  their  fellow-men.  ...  As  for  my 
people,  they  will  never  forget. 

Mitchell's  unflinching  devotion,  his  dignity,  his 
honesty,  won  Lloyd.  "Pray  God,"  he  said,  "that  in 
our  hour  of  need  the  people  may  find  as  good  a  leader 
as  the  miners  have  had. " 

Upon  the  closing  of  the  Commission,  Mitchell,  Lloyd, 
and  Darrow  hastened  to  Chicago  where,  on  February 
1 6,  organised  labour  tendered  them  a  reception.  The 
Auditorium  was  full,  noo  vice-presidents,  represent- 
ing all  the  labour  organisations  in  Chicago,  were  on 
the  platform,  and  the  vast  audience  of  6000  showed  in 
the  main  the  earnest  faces  of  working  men  and  women. 
It  was  labour's  outpouring  of  gratitude.  As  the  band 
played  "The  Star  Spangled  Banner"  Mitchell,  Darrow, 
and  Lloyd  entered  amid  thunderous  applause,  the 
waving  of  hats  and  handkerchiefs,  and  the  cries, 
"What's  the  matter  with  Darrow?  And  Mitchell? 


236  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

And  Lloyd?"  Never  was  there  a  more  spontaneous 
burst  of  joy  and  affection.  The  "three  Illinois  con- 
querors," as  they  were  called,  must  have  felt  that  they 
held  a  place  in  the  hearts  of  the  people.  But  each 
realised  that  the  cheers  were  a  paean  of  triumph/ 
expressing  labour's  sense  of  its  own  victory,  and  its 
determination  to  carry  its  fight  bravely  forward;  and 
here  each  placed  the  victory.  "With  their  starving 
bodies,"  said  Lloyd,  the  first  speaker,  "they  [the 
miners]  made  a  wall  around  all  of  us."  He  spoke 
briefly,  modestly,  giving  place  to  Darrow.  But,  as 
always,  his  few  words  were  powerful,  and,  going  beyond 
the  walls  of  the  Auditorium,  filled  the  press  of  the 
country.  He  reminded  them  of  the  greetings  to  Debs 
only  nine  years  before  in  dingy  old  Battery  D,  to 
celebrate  a  battle  not  won,  "though  it  deserved  to  be, " 
and  contrasted  it  with  this  celebration  of  victory  held 
in  the  finest  and  largest  assembly-room  in  America, 
which  was  "still  not  large  enough  nor  fine  enough." 
Public  opinion,  he  said,  had  learned  something  since 
1894  when  wild  with  terror  it  had  thrown  itself  against 
the  Debs  strike  like  a  cyclone.  In  1902  it  filled  the 
sails  of  the  strike  with  favouring  breezes.  He  con- 
trasted the  two  Presidents  of  these  two  crises;  in  1894 
"a  President  who  tore  the  constitution  of  Illinois  in 
two  to  make  a  gap  through  which  to  march  his  federal 
troops,"  and  Roosevelt,  whose  action  in  substituting 
arbitration  for  government  by  injunction  and  military 
usurpation  was,  he  said,  the  greatest  stroke  of  recent 
statesmanship,  "a  short-cut  across  lots  in  real  American 
style."  He  warned  them  that  the  whole  people  had 
before  them  the  same  fight,  that  the  same  men  meant 
to  be  masters  of  all  of  us  in  all  markets. 

The  award  of  the  Commission,  announced  on  March 


"  The  Miners'  Trinity." 

Henry  D.  Lloyd.       Clarence  S.  Darrow. 
John  Mitchell. 


0>  THE 
IIWIVERSITV  OF  IIUMOI8. 


"My  First  Case"  237 

1 8,  recognised  the  United  Mine  Workers  of  America, 
recommended  laws  against  child  labour  and  compul- 
sory investigation  by  the  federal  government  in  like 
differences,  and  it  approached  the  permanency  for 
which  Lloyd  pleaded  by  providing  for  a  board  of  con- 
ciliation. Lloyd  wrote  to  Edward  A.  Moseley,  Secre- 
tary of  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission: 

You  are  no  doubt  rejoicing  this  morning,  as  I  am,  in  the 
announcement  of  the  award  of  the  Anthracite  Coal  Strike 
Commission.  The  men  have  not  got  all  that  they  ought  to 
have  had,  but  they  certainly  have  won  a  notable  victory. 
...  I  hold  that  the  miners  got  exactly  what  they  asked 
for.  They  did  not  demand  any  "hard  and  fast"  terms 
with  regard  to  wages,  hours,  and  other  conditions  of  em- 
ployment. They  asked  only  for  such  concessions  in  these 
regards  as  they  might  be  found  entitled  to  by  arbitration. 
It  is,  therefore,  strictly  accurate  to  say  that  what  they  got 
is  precisely  what  they  asked  for. 

The  leading  dailies  endeavoured  to  belittle  the 
victory.  "Fountain  pens  are  playing  large  streams  of 
ink  upon  the  fuming  conservatives  all  over  the  country," 
Lloyd  said  in  his  Boyce's  Weekly  article. 

A  greater  victory  has  not  been  won  in  the  social  history 
of  our  race,  and  the  very  persons  to  whom  it  is  of  the  most 
vital  importance  are  the  very  class  who  are  now  belittling 
it,  and  who  hoped  to  settle  the  strike  by  force.  If  there  is 
one  class  more  than  another  that  should  pray  that  social 
disputes  should  always  be  ended  by  reason,  it  is  the  para- 
sites of  the  minority  who  do  not  know  how  to  use  their 
hands. 

To  spread  the  leaven,  Lloyd  sent  thirty-eight  of  the 
Commission's  reports  to  leading  minds  in  America, 


238  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

Europe,  and  Australasia;  among  others  to  Sir  Joseph 
Ward,  Minister  of  Commerce  for  New  Zealand,  saying : 

Beyond  a  doubt  the  resort  of  President  Roosevelt  to  this 
arbitration,  the  favour  with  which  it  was  received  by  the 
public,  and  its  successful  settlement  of  the  questions  sub- 
mitted to  it,  were  due  to  the  initiative  and  the  inspiration 
derived  from  the  laws  of  your  country. 


CHAPTER  XXIV 
"THE  PEOPLE'S  ATTORNEY — MY  HUMBLE  SELF" 

FROM  first  to  last  in  Henry  D.  Lloyd's  life-work, 
a  central  point  of  attack  had  been  the  railroads. 
Through  their  control  of  transportation  they  held  the 
key  to  the  position.  Their  nationalisation  was  in  his 
opinion  the  most  urgent,  while  pressing  closely  was 
that  of  the  coal  and  oil  fields  and  the  reform  of  banking 
and  currency.  During  the  passing  of  the  coal  crisis, 
he  used  every  opportunity  to  see  that  its  lesson,  the  call 
for  the  nationalisation  of  the  railroads,  was  not  lost. 
This  gave  an  added  timeliness  to  the  writing  of  his 
book  on  the  Swiss  democracy,  with  its  largest  single 
achievement  the  acquisition  of  its  railroads — the  task 
which  now  awaited  him  as  he  returned  at  last  to  his 
Winnetka  study. 

I  came  home  last  night  .  .  .  [he  wrote  to  his  wife],  and 
found  our  home  brightly  lighted,  roses  in  the  parlour  .  .  . 
and  your  thoughtfulness  everywhere,  and  a  letter  from  you 
to  welcome  me.  And  still  it  was  lonesome!  .  .  . 

Home,  Sunday,  Feb.  22.  This  is  "my  busy  day."  I 
have  to  get  ready  an  article  for  the  Booklover's  Magazine; 
one  for  Boyce's  Weekly;  prepare  the  scheme  of  a  new  talk  on 
Compulsory  Arbitration  for  Meadville ;  and  write  a  letter  in 
The  Nation  in  reply  to  an  attack.  .  .  .  Go  to  see  President 
Eliot  in  the  afternoon;  celebrate  the  82d  birthday  with 

239 


240  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

"the  Jedge"  at  tea,  .  .  .  and  take  the  9.20  Erie  train  for 
Meadville.     How  's  that  for  the  day  of  rest?  .  .  . 

The  Eliot  reception  was  very  pleasant.  The  Carpenter 
house  is  very  good  and  looks  right  out  on  the  bank  where 
we  used  to  pick  our  blue  fringed  gentians.  .  .  .  Eliot  was 
sublimely  unconscious  of  our  passage  at  arms  about  "the 
scab,"  and  I  could  meet  him  with  serenity  because  I  had 
been  decent  and  impersonal.  It  is  a  good  rule  in  even  your 
bitterest  controversies  to  say  nothing  you  would  not  say  if 
the  party  of  the  second  part  were  present.  .  .  . 

Talking  about  non-union  men,  the  Post  and  Nation  are 
"slatting"  me  unmercifully,  misquoting  me  repeatedly  in 
what  I  said  before  the  Coal  Strike  Commission.  But  I 
don't  think  I  shall  reply.  Horace  White  has  left  the  Post. 

He  refused  to  receive  any  fee  from  the  miners.  "No 
monetary  consideration,"  wrote  Mitchell,  "will  ever 
liquidate  the  debt  we  owe  you  for  the  valuable  services 
you  rendered  us  during  the  hearings  before  the  Com- 
mission, but  we  desire  and  will  ask  the  privilege  of 
sending  you  an  amount  sufficient  to  cover  your  expenses. 
.  .  ."  Concerning  this  Mr.  Lloyd  wrote  to  his 
wife: 

...  I  will  send  you  .  .  .  Mitchell's  nice  letter.  .  .  . 
If  you  are  still  of  my  mind  I  will  tell  him  that  is  my  contri- 
bution to  the  miners.  But  when  we  are  really  hard  up  the 
several  hundred  dollars  I  could  get  are  a  temptation. 

Accordingly  he  replied: 

WINNETKA,  Feb.  27,  '03. 
MY  DEAR  MR.  MITCHELL: 

Your  letter  of  Feb.  2ist  with  its  expression  of  regard 
was  most  welcome.  If  I  have  been  of  any  use  to  the  miners, 
I  am  very  glad.  As  to  my  expenses,  I  should  have  had  to 
live  wherever  I  was,  and  whatever  I  have  spent  in  addition 


The  People's  Attorney  241 

to  that  I  am  very  glad  to  contribute  to  their  funds.  I  have 
had  a  very  warm  feeling  for  the  miners  ever  since  I  saw 
their  heroism  and  suffering  at  Spring  Valley.  Though  they 
have  a  full  treasury,  I  cannot  help  remembering  that  it 
comes  out  of  very  scanty  purses,  and  that  it  is  destined  for 
the  support  of  a  movement  much  higher  than  merely  the 
increase  of  their  wages.  I  feel,  on  the  whole,  that  I  am 
still  in  their  debt,  not  they  in  mine.  .  .  . 

I  am  now  going  to  get  back  to  my  own  proper  work,  so 
long  interrupted. 

But  if  at  any  time  you  have  any  special  work  in  which 
you  think  I  could  be  helpful  I  will  respond  to  any  call  from 
you,  as  to  appear  before  a  legislative  committee,  or  "  lobby, " 
or  go  into  court.  And  to  make  it  perhaps  easier  for  you  to 
ask  me,  I  will  promise  that  in  any  such  case  I  will  accept  the 
offer  you  have  made  and  will  not  refuse  my  expenses,  tho  I 
shall  not  accept  any  compensation.  .  .  . 

To  which  Mitchell  answered: 

...  I  still  feel  that  we  should  be  allowed  to  reimburse 
you  for  your  expenses,  but  in  any  event  the  miners  are  under 
a  lasting  debt  of  gratitude  to  you,  and  I  beg  to  assure  you 
that  we  who  fully  realise  the  worth  of  your  services  to  our 
cause  can  never  adequately  express  our  appreciation  of 
your  assistance.  .  .  . 

When  the  battle  was  over  [said  Mitchell  in  a  memorial 
speech],  when  the  men  were  at  work;  when  the  award  was 
made,  and  our  organisation  sought  to  reward  even  in  a 
small  way  the  attorneys  and  counsellors  who  had  helped  us, 
and  when  we  came  to  Henry  D.  Lloyd  and  asked  him  to 
accept  from  us  at  least  a  small  reward  he  said:  "No,  not 
one  penny. "  When  we  said  to  him,  "  Permit  us  to  at  least 
pay  the  expenses  incurred,"  he  replied:  "No,  not  one 
cent."  He  gave  his  time,  he  gave  his  money,  he  gave  his 
splendid  effort  to  the  anthracite  miners,  as  he  has  through 

16 


242  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

all  his  life  given  his  time  and  effort  to  every  cause  that  he 
believed  to  be  right. 

Judge  Gray,  moved  by  the  revelations  of  child  labour, 
as  of  the  little  girls  working  all  night  in  the  Pennsyl- 
vania silk  mills,  had  charged  all  to  do  their  best  to  end 
such  wrongs.  Upon  Mr.  Lloyd,  whose  susceptibility 
to  receive  influence  was  as  striking  as  his  power  to 
give  it,  this  did  not  fall  in  vain.  One  of  his  first  tasks 
was  to  investigate  the  conditions  of  child  labour  in 
Illinois.  "I  find,"  he  wrote  to  many  citizens,  "that 
my  State  also  shares  with  Pennsylvania,  the  Keystone 
State,  the  same  degradation  of  breaking  down  the 
keystone  of  family  and  social  life. "  He  drafted  a  bill  to 
reduce  these  evils  and  did  his  utmost  to  arouse  the 
public.  He  was  now  beginning  work  on  his  Swiss  book 
and  revelling  again  in  the  beauties  of  springtime  in 
Winrietka  after  years  of  exile.  He  wrote  to  his  wife: 

Home,  Feb.  27.  ...  A  soft,  showery,  misty,  melting 
day.  Prince  is  beginning  to  shed  his  red  hair,  the  sap  is 
rising  in  the  maples — and  in  me — and  I  set  out  this  morning 
to  find  some  pussy-willows  to  send  you.  It  is  a  late  spring, 
and  the  only  kind  that  are  out  are  these  of  the  Balm  of 
Gilead  tree  up  in  the  Hubbard  Woods.  I  visited  all  the 
haunts,  only  these  are  out.  .  .  .  The  Post  has  another 
perfectly  vicious  attack  on  me.  .  .  .  The  Chicago  Chronicle, 
however,  had  a  very  fine  editorial.  But  alas,  the  Chronicle 
does  not  go  to  my  kind  of  people,  and  the  Post  does.  .  .  . 

I  am  getting  well  "slatted"  by  all  the  corporation  pa- 
pers for  my  attack  on  Cleveland.  ...  I  am  going  to  send 
the  Post  a  defence  of  Altgeld.  .  .  .  The  beginning  of  the 
book  lags  because  I  have  not  yet  found  a  stenographer. 

Meanwhile,  he  was  publicly  and  privately  trying  to 


The  People's  Attorney  243 

clarify  public  opinion,  as,  for  instance,  in  his  answer  to 
the  New  York  Evening  Post  (March  3,  1903),  which 
was  in  part: 

To  THE  EDITOR  OF  THE  Evening  Post: 

Sir:  In  your  recent  comment  upon  a  remark  of  mine  as 
to  the  possibility  that  federal  receivers  might  have  been 
put  in  possession  of  the  anthracite  coal  mines,  if  the  opera- 
tors had  not  "surrendered,"  as  Mr.  Baer  puts  it,  last  fall, 
you  say  that  I  probably  meant  "that  a  law  authorising  such 
a  receivership  would  have  been  passed  by  Congress  to 
relieve  the  coal  famine."  No.  I  meant  that  under  the 
existing  laws,  and  by  familiar  processes,  any  consumer  or 
collection  of  consumers,  or  public  official,  from  President 
to  Mayor,  representing  consumers,  could  bring  suit  in 
equity  in  the  United  States  courts  and  ask  for  a  receiver- 
ship. I  meant,  also,  that  though  this  ordinary  andlfamiliar 
remedy  was  ample,  recourse  could  also  be  had  to  the  Sher- 
man Anti-Trust  Act,  which  expressly  authorises  the  seizure 
of  coal  mines  and  railroads,  parties  to  an  unlawful  combi- 
nation. Both  these  remedies,  the  ordinary  one  through  the 
courts  of  equity,  and  the  extraordinary  one  through  the 
Sherman  Act,  could  have  been  used,  if  desired,  simulta- 
neously. Recourse  to  the  Anti-Trust  law  has  not  been 
precluded,  in  my  opinion,  and  that  of  many  other  lawyers, 
by  the  decision  in  the  Sugar  Trust  case.  That  decision  was 
made  only  on  the  facts  presented  to  the  court,  and  the  real 
facts  of  the  sugar  monopoly  were  carefully  and  probably 
intentionally  omitted  from  those  presented.  .  .  . 

When  as  a  solution  the  organisation  of  the  mines  on 
a  co-operative  basis  was  suggested,  he  answered  that 
there  was  no  present  possibility  of  it.  "The  American 
working  man  has  some  way  to  travel  before  he  gets 
within  sight  of  that  goal. "  In  trying  to  solve  the  prob- 
lem, the  people  were  testing  one  legal  resource  after 
another.  He  saw  the  hope  that  lay  here  enfolded: 


244  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

We  hear  nowadays  much  disparaging  comment  on  the 
apparent  torpor  of  the  American  people  in  the  face  of  the 
great  problems  which  are  being  made  ready  while  they 
wait;  much  pessimism  as  to  the  likelihood  that  we  will 
find  a  remedy.  Is  it  not  the  reverse  of  discouraging  to  find 
that  the  first  instance  of  consummation  of  the  evil  in 
a  concrete  and  final  form  is  followed  by  this  stir  among 
the  citizens  and  their  representatives  and  this  resolute 
turning  to  the  constitutional  and  legal  instrumentalities 
which  organised  society  has  created  to  assert  its  supremacy 
over  business  and  property? 

The  railroads  were  attacked  on  all  sides.  An  enquiry 
was  instituted  by  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission 
into  the  existence  of  a  coal  combination,  and  pro- 
minent men  examined.  Not  much  was  learned  from 
them  in  the  way  of  facts.  "Under  the  present  system, " 
wrote  Lloyd,  "we  are  as  dependent  upon  them  for 
their  facts  as  for  their  coal,  and  are  lucky  if  we  escape 
a  famine  in  either.  However,  the  essential  facts — those 
that  have  been  burned  into  us  by  fire,  or  rather  the 
lack  of  fire — we  know. " 

The  socialists  of  Maine  and  Massachusetts  started 
petitions,  which  were  widely  signed,  for  the  national 
ownership  of  the  coal  mines.  At  their  request,  he 
argued  the  case  in  Maine  before  the  legislative  com- 
mittee on  federal  relations,  and  in  Massachusetts 
before  the  committees  on  constitutional  amendment 
and  on  national  ownership.  He  was  also  planning  to 
get  the  Illinois  Legislature  into  line  on  the  question. 
As  always  every  hope  and  fear  went  through  the  mail 
to  his  wife : 

The  Wayside,  Mar.  4.  ...  I  have  my  Maine  address 
well  mapped  out.  The  facts  will  make  it  good,  no  matter 
what  I  do.  . 


The  People's  Attorney  245 

Mar.  7.  ...  Fraulein  and  the  stenographer  and  I  have 
had  our  quiet  tripartite  evening,  .  .  .  and  now  having 
walked  an  hour  and  a  half  on  the  porch  thinking  of  you,  and 
my  Maine  speech,  and  of  you,  I  am  sitting  with  my  feet  on 
the  fender  writing  this  good-night  word.  .  .  . 

My  Maine  matter  is  coming  out  of  chaos  into  cosmos. 
I  had  an  answer  to-day  to  prayer — of  my  kind — the  un- 
uttered  kind.  I  needed  so  much  a  speech  made  by  Til- 
man  that  I  telegraphed  day  before  yesterday  to  Washington 
for  it.  I  finished  my  work  last  night  up  to  the  precise  point 
at  which  I  must  have  that  material  and  could  not  have  gone 
on  without  it.  When  I  came  down  to  breakfast  there  it 
lay  on  the  table,  but  it  was  not  the  copy  I  had  telegraphed  for 
but  one  I  had  asked  Tilman  for  six  weeks  ago  and  which  had 
been  following  me  around  ever  since.  I  don't  believe  now  it 
was  Rectenwald1  brought  it.  It  was  probably  a  good  old 
orthodox  Raven,  feeding  the  Prophet ! 

The  Chicago  Club,  March  8.  ...  I  go  to  Augusta, 
Maine,  to-morrow.  .  .  .  You  will  go  with  me  every  step  of 
the  way.  There  is  no  news  except  that  all  the  snow  has 
gone  except  a  few  patches  in  the  North  shadows,  and  that 
Mr.  King  saw  a  robin  in  Winnetka  three  weeks  ago!  .  .  . 

Now  Massachusetts  wants  me  to  address  their  Legislature 
also!  First  I  know  I  shall  be  a  reform  tramp.  .  .  . 

On  Boston  Train,  March  10.  .  .  .  I  cannot  help  specu- 
lating how  the  Maine  Solons  will  take  my  argument.  I 
handle  the  monops  without  gloves.  I  advocate  the  forfeit- 
ure of  their  franchises  and  property  as  justly  incurred  by 
their  violations  of  law.  I  have  to  work  on  the  train  all  day 
to-day  getting  up  my  references,  etc.  I  am  going  to  get  as 
much  in  touch  with  these  Maine  and  Massachusetts  social- 
ists as  I  can  while  here.  I  want  to  size  up  this  socialist 
movement,  and  see  if  it  has  really  the  makings  in  it  of  an 

1 A  messenger. 


246  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

American  policy.     We  must  find  some  political  tool  if  we 
are  going  to  have  a  political  (peaceful)  remedy.  .  .  . 

There  must  be  a  socialist  boom  coming.  Way  land  of  the 
Appeal  to  Reason  tells  me  in  a  letter  there  is  a  perfect  flood 
of  subscriptions  pouring  in.  No  wonder,  the  people  are 
turning  to  a  party  that  has  some  principles  and  some 
courage.  .  .  .  My  coal  argument  masses  the  history  of  the 
monopoly  movement  in  an  appalling  way.  .  .  . 

Portland,  Maine,  March  u.  .  .  .  The  Press  boycotts 
the  Bad  Man  from  the  West.  .  .  . 

Augusta,  Maine,  March  n.  .  .  .  Seven  newspaper  men 
are  at  this  moment  busy  on  my  argument,  which  cuts  as 
deep  as  I  know  how.  .  .  . 

Boston,  March  12.  .  .  .  The  hearing  last  night  was  a 
great  success.  The  committee  adjourned  it  until  evening, 
and  it  was  held  in  the  Senate  Chamber.  Although  only  a 
couple  of  hours'  notice  was  given  there  was  a  good  attend- 
ance, and  when  I  got  through  there  was  a  lot  of  applause, 
which  is  unusual  at  a  legislative  hearing.  I  took  the  sleeper 
at  midnight,  and  got  here  at  six,  and  am  correspondingly 
done  up  to-day.  .  .  .  My  hearing  here  is  to  be  for  to-mor- 
row morning.  ...  I  shall  be  glad  to  get  back  to  the 
Wayside|and  that  daily  bread.  .  .  . 

The  Massachusetts  men  seemed  quite  satisfied  with  my 
argument.  A  member  of  the  legislative  committee  who  had 
strenuously  opposed  giving  a  date  for  my  argument  came 
to  me  afterwards,  said  that  he  had  opposed,  but  was  now 
very  glad  he  had  not  succeeded.  .  .  . 

...  It  is  the  socialists  who  have  taken  the  lead  in  this 
move  for  nationalisation  both  in  Maine  and  Massachusetts, 
and  in  Chicago  they  are  the  only  party  really  possessed  of 
the  principle  of  progress.  I  shall  be  home  Monday,  and 
hope  at  last  to  begin  on  my  books.  I  forgot  to  tell  you 


The  People's  Attorney  247 

that  the  Maine  socialists  paid  my  expenses,  but  I  hated  to 
take  the  money  for  it  came  out  of  the  pockets  of  very  poor 
men.  As  to  the  taxes  we  will  have  to  make  that  money  up 
somehow  by  hook  or  crook.  .  .  . 

It  is  safe  to  say  that  no  man  was  more  excited  over 
the  coal  crisis  than  he.  A  volcanic  anger  was  burning 
within  him.  He  was  characteristically  incisive,  radical, 
prompt.  He  stood  out  before  the  country  in  favour  of 
seizure.  He  told  the  Senate  committees,  in  an  address 
which  was  one  of  the  finest  he  ever  delivered,  to  seize 
the  mines  and  pay  for  them  afterward.  "Possession 
first, "  he  said,  "payment  afterwards, " — if  they  deemed 
it  just.  This  went  ringing  through  the  press,  some 
papers  sending  it  out  in  headlines — "  'Seize  the  Mines, ' 
says  Henry  D.  Lloyd. " 

First  seize  the  mines,  then  debate  the  question  of  pay- 
ment. If  we  pay  for  them,  it  will  be  only  because  the  people 
show  these  men  more  mercy  than  they  have  shown  either 
the  people  or  the  working  men. 

Possession  before  payment  also  because  the  people  would 
thus  have  a  practical  means  of  ascertaining  the  real  value  of 
the  property.  The  people,  through  their  receivers,  would 
take  in  hand  not  only  the  mines  and  roads,  but  also  the 
books,  records,  and  accounts. 

For  this  remedy,  complete,  simple,  just,  the  whole  cost 
will  be  less  than  that  of  one  week  of  the  coal  famine.  No- 
thing is  needed  but  one  thing — no  new  laws  nor  investi- 
gation by  Congress,  no  amendment  to  the  Constitution — 
nothing  but  public  opinion.  Here  lies  ready  to  the  hands 
of  the  people  every  tool  they  need.  They  have  but  to 
resolve  to  use  it  and  the  problem  is  solved. 

The  long  argument  by  which  he  supported  this  ad- 
vice was  a  dignified  survey  of  undeniable  facts.  He 


248  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

appealed  to  the  reason  of  the  senators,  and,  through 
them,  to  the  nation ;  he  touched  their  emotions,  aroused 
their  fears.  He  showed  by  magnificent  figures  the 
millions  robbed  from  the  people.  He  declared  our 
lives  and  liberties  threatened  by  these  few  men  "as 
cruel  as  the  grave. "  Fools  were  those  who  thought  the 
American  republic  could  survive  the  continuance  of 
such  despotic  rule.  He  summarised  the  results  of 
monopoly,  which,  he  said,  could  not  but  stagger  public 
opinion.  He  showed  the  utter  incompetence  of  the 
managers  of  the  coal  roads,  emphasising  the  fact,  in  his 
opinion  one  of  the  weightiest  brought  out  and  yet 
unnoticed  by  the  press,  that  the  companies  by  simply 
blending  the  pea  and  chestnut  coal  could  have  made 
every  dollar  of  advance  asked  by  the  miners.  This  the 
real  merchants  would  have  known  how  to  do,  "but," 
he  said,  "the  men  to  whom  God  in  his  infinite  wisdom 
has  given  control  of  the  property  interests  of  the 
country  are  not  merchants,  but  speculators  and  manip- 
ulators. .  .  .  We  can  see  coming  the  most  appalling 
campaign  for  our  conquest  to  which  any  people  have 
yet  been  summoned  to  surrender. "  The  Poles,  Italians 
— all  the  twenty-seven  races  in  the  struggle — had  been 
fighting  for  our  firesides  as  well  as  their  own,  and  it 
remained  for  us  to  prove  whether  we,  as  consumers, 
could  establish  as  successful  a  manhood  in  our  market 
as  they  had  done  in  theirs.  He  called  upon  the  Senate 
to  act  at  once.  "We  need  not  think  we  can  save  our- 
selves trouble,"  he  said,  "by  letting  these  problems 
wait  until  to-morrow;  the  longer  they  wait,  the  more 
trouble. "  There  is  no  time  to  wait  for  a  constitutional 
amendment,  for  a  law  of  Congress,  or  for  more  inves- 
tigation. "A  simple,  practical,  legal,  cheap,  and 
kindly  remedy  is  within  our  reach, "  he  said,  and  pro- 


TWELVE    PAGES. 


PRICE 


GLOBE  LATI 

7:3O  P 


SEIZE  THE 
GOAL  MINES! 


cle 


Henry  D.  Lloyd  Urges 
People  to  Act. 


the 


(for 


Mr 


Wai 


Tok 

in; 

[ane 


Iffers 


Will 


HENRY  D.  LLOYD. 


Constituted  Outlaws, 


Public  Monopoly,  He  Says,  Pro- 
vides Only  Escape  from  Evils 
of  Private  Monopoly. 


From  the  Boston  Daily  Globe,  March  13,  1903. 


fHE 

OF  ILLINOIS, 


The  People's  Attorney  249 

posed  two  courses,  a  federal  receivership,  or  forfeiture 
under  the  Anti-Trust  law. 

They  are  all  the  same  men  [ran  his  warning].  Ownership 
of  the  highways  ends  in  ownership  of  everything  and  every- 
body that  must  use  the  highways.  .  .  .  What  will  be  the 
fruits  when  all  the  mines,  forests,  factories,  and  farms  have 
surrendered  to  the  "progressive  desire"  of  these  "lords  of 
industry"? 

Two  of  the  Massachusetts  committees  followed  his 
argument  with  unanimous  reports  for  national  owner- 
ship if  regulation  failed.  The  Legislature  itself  was  more 
conservative  and  voted  only  for  government  super- 
vision, but  one  third  voted  for  ownership.  This  was 
to  him  an  astonishing  sign  of  the  development  of 
public  opinion,  showing  it  to  have  advanced  beyond 
the  point  of  discussing  whether  or  not  it  had  any 
right  to  interfere  with  private  property.  It  marked 
a  new  step  in  social  evolution  and  one  in  strict  accord 
with  the  letter  and  spirit  of  the  law  and  the  practice 
of  all  free  peoples. 

"Things  become  constitutional,"  Lincoln  said,  "by 
becoming  indispensable."  This  trumpet-call  from  Massa- 
chusetts is  the  most  notable  utterance  of  the  organic  voice 
with  regard  to  the  rights  of  property  that  has  been  heard 
since  the  close  of  the  great  controversy  which  preceded  it 
about  another  form  of  property — also  black. 

Thus  the  Massachusetts  House  of  Representatives 
was  the  first  of  any  of  our  legislative  bodies  to  vote  for 
the  transfer  of  a  commodity  from  private  to  public 
ownership.  "Massachusetts  for  ever!"  he  exclaimed 
joyously,  and  wrote  in  his  Boyce's  Weekly  article: 


250  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

The  newspapers  and  Beacon  Street  and  State  Street  took 
only  an  amused  interest  in  the  matter  as  an  eccentricity 
without  support.  When  the  Massachusetts  legislative  com- 
mittee unanimously  recommended  national  ownership, 
if  regulation  failed,  it  was  an  earthquake  shock.  .  .  .  The 
strong  men  who  had  been  deceived  by  the  apparent  lifeless- 
ness  of  public  spirit  into  the  belief  that  it  was  dead  and  that 
they  could  pick  the  bones  and  insult  the  memory  of  the 
American  Commonwealth  to  their  hearts'  content  have  had 
a  warning — which  they  will  not  heed.  Strong  men  never 
do. 

He  also  presented  his  views  as  orator  at  the  May 
banquet  of  the  Massachusetts  Reform  Club : 

I  made  the  dynamiting  of  the  Interstate  Commerce  Law 
by  the  railroad  and  Supreme  Court  anarchists  [he  wrote  to 
Edward  Moseley,  in  regard  to  the  address]  my  principal 
theme.  The  Club  received  my  demonstration  that  the 
public  had  been  stripped  of  all  defence  with  almost  tumul- 
tuous approval. 

Being  severely  criticised  by  the  press,  he  replied  in 
the  Boston  Sunday  Journal: 

WINNETKA,  ILL.,  March  17,  1903. 
To  THE  EDITOR: 

In  your  issue  of  March  I4th,  you  refer  to  my  argument 
of  the  preceding  day  before  a  committee  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts Legislature  in  favour  of  the  seizure  of  the  coal 
mines.  You  speak  of  the  plan  as  that  of  a  "socialist." 
You  say  that  my  recommendation  that  the  mines  should  be 
seized  immediately  by  the  national  government  and  the 
compensation  to  the  owners  arranged  afterward  is  "one 
which  the  present  occupants  of  the  penitentiary  would 
warmly  indorse. " 

This  plan  of  action  is  not  one  which  was  originated  by  the 
socialists,  nor  am  I  one  of  them,  as  yet,  though  now  that 


The  People's  Attorney  251 

you  mention  it  I  think  I  will  join  them.  The  remedy  is  one 
which  is  provided  by  law,  common  and  statute,  English 
and  American,  and  one  which  is  recommended  by  some  of 
the  best  lawyers  and  ablest  statesmen  in  Massachusetts 
and  the  United  States. 

One  method  of  the  procedure  I  advocated,  a  United 
States  receivership  for  the  benefit  of  all  concerned,  is  used 
every  day  in  the  courts  of  this  country  and  Great  Britain. 
At  one  time,  less  than  ten  years  ago,  one  quarter  of  the 
railroad  mileage  of  our  country  was  thus  operated  by  the 
United  States  courts  through  receivers.  .  .  . 

The  other  method,  that  of  summary  seizure  and  forfeiture 
under  the  Anti-Trust  law,  is  a  remedy  prepared  and  urged  by 
some  of  the  most  conservative  Republican  statesmen  this 
country  has  known,  men  like  Sherman,  Edmunds,  and 
others.  Senator  Edmunds  has  lately  publicly  reaffirmed 
his  adherence  to  this  remedy  and  his  faith  in  its  efficiency. 

A  wrestling  controversialist  might  feel  justified  in  inti- 
mating that  you  assert  that  Senators  Sherman  and  Ed- 
munds, and  the  other  Republicans  and  Democrats  who 
acted  with  them,  originated  and  enacted  a  policy  which 
"the  present  occupants  of  the  penitentiary  would  warmly 
indorse. " 

Surely  the  Journal  does  not  mean  that? 

The  programme  favoured  by  those  who  ask  the  Massa- 
chusetts Legislature  to  petition  Congress  for  the  national 
ownership  of  the  coal  mines  is  to  appeal  through  legal 
processes  to  the  courts  to  put  in  action  a  lawful  and  familiar 
remedy  to  which  the  people  of  our  race  have  had  recourse 
for  generations,  and  the  Anti-Trust  law  does  but  expedite 
and  clarify  the  application  of  the  old-time  remedies.  This 
had  not  been  supposed  previously  to  the  time  you  wrote — 
"  It  was  the  law  until  your  Honour  spoke  " — to  be  the  sort  of 
procedure  "which  the  present  occupants  of  the  penitentiary 
would  warmly  indorse." 

The  inmates  of  the  penitentiary  did  not  get  there  by 
warmly  indorsing  recourse  to  law  in  their  cases.  The 


252  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

thieves  who  use  the  law — and  there  are  plenty  of  them  in 
America — do  not  go  to  the  penitentiary,  though  they  ought 
to  do  so.  "We  socialists" — I  am  accepting  your  classifi- 
cation of  me,  you  see — will  do  our  best  to  put  them  there 
when  we  get  the  power. 

The  relevancy  seems  to  escape  me  of  your  reference  to  the 
occupants  of  the  penitentiary  and  to  Paris  communes, 
because  some  citizens  have  suggested  appeal  to  the  estab- 
lished organs  of  justice  to  ascertain  if  the  common  and  stat- 
ute law  did  or  did  not  offer  them  a  remedy  for  the  evils  of 
which  you  as  well  as  we  complain. 

A  stupider  people  than  the  American  might  almost  feel 
justified  in  believing  that  such  criticism  of  the  people  seeking 
by  legal  means  to  get  legal  redress  was  an  invitation  to  them 
to  try  the  Paris  commune  or  something  worse;  but,  again, 
of  course,  the  Journal  does  not  mean  that? 

Thus  did  he  as  "the  people's  attorney"  use  every 
outlet  of  press  and  platform  to  influence  the  citizens 
to  meet  this  crisis  heroically.  But  they  were  not  yet 
ready  to  act.  "They  are  thinking,"  he  said.  "That 
these  properties  are  morally  and  justly  forfeitable, " 
he  told  the  Senate  committee  at  the  close  of  his  argu- 
ment, "the  people  at  least  will  not  doubt  when  they 
have  digested  the  record  we  have  traversed  to-day." 


CHAPTER  XXV 
"WHY  i  JOIN  THE  SOCIALISTS" 

MR.  LLOYD  began  to  consider  seriously  his  posi- 
tion as  a  socialist  who  remained  outside  the 
political  organisation.  The  coal  strike  crisis  had 
revealed  anew  the  temper  of  capitalism.  The  need 
of  solidarity  in  the  resisting  forces  under  an  adequate 
political  platform  pressed  upon  him.  This  he  saw  to  be 
possible  in  the  newly  formed  Socialist  party.  The  two 
old  parties  were  trifling  with  the  people,  he  said,  and  with 
the  questions  before  them.  He  quoted  Emerson's  saying 
in  1859:  "We  shall  not  live  to  see  slavery  abolished." 
He  said  it  was  perfectly  logical  to  believe  that  the 
rapidity  of  the  capitalistic  transformation  would  be 
matched  by  an  equally  rapid  revolution  in  the  opposite 
direction — the  uprising  of  the  people,  that  "the  final 
velocities"  would  more  than  make  up  for  the  initial 
slowness.  Horace  Traubel  tells  of  their  memorable 
walks  during  the  Commission  days,  when  he  said: 
"Traubel,  there  's  nothing  for  us  to  do  but  to  join  the 
Socialist  party.  We  must  do  it."  He  wrote  to  John 
Spargo  in  the  same  strain.  He  said  that  he  believed 

it  was  now  time  for  him  to  take  his  place  in  the  ranks 

ff 
of  the  party.     He  had  made  a  distinction  in  a  recent 

article1  between   "the  amateur  socialists"   and   "the 

'  "A  Large  Straw  in  a  Strong  Wind,"  Boyce's  Weekly,  April  29,  1903. 

253 


254 

political  socialists,  the  real  ones."     He  wished  to  be 
"a  real  one."     He  wrote  to  his  wife  (March,  1903): 

...  I  have  had  a  quiet  day,  reading  some  trashy  stuff, 
and  writing  what  I  hope  may  not  be  some  trashy  stuff  in 
the  effort  to  make  some  points  for  the  speech  the  socialists 
want  me  to  make  at  their  Auditorium  meeting  March  28th. 
.  .  .  Don't  you  think  the  socialists  ought  to  be  helped 
by  those  who  believe  in  the  real  thing?  They  are  the 
only  party  that  has  a  municipal  or  national  platform 
adequate  to  the  present  crisis.  .  .  .  The  only  party  free 
from  entangling  alliances  with  the  corporations,  and  the 
only  party  that  cannot  be  sold  out — Bryanised  as  the 
People's  party  was — for  the  socialists  are  an  old  party, 
organised  so  that  they  do  not  run  by  boss-power,  but  by 
real  democratic  methods  within  the  party,  as  the  trade- 
unions  are  run.  The  rank  and  file  are  thoroughly  or  at 
least  fairly  well  grounded  in  economic  principles,  which 
neither  of  the  old  parties  are.  If  the  members  of  the 
People's  party  had  had  any  real  economic  intelligence,  in- 
stead of  representing  only  discontent,  they  could  never  have 
been  stampeded  for  Bryan.  Practically  the  Socialist  party 
has  no  leaders  in  the  ordinary  sense,  for  the  party  voters  by 
carefully  arranged  procedure,  wholly  different  from  the 
usual  political  convention,  decide  the  party  policy.  You 
ask  me  about  Roosevelt.  In  Switzerland,  the  only  real 
democracy,  such  a  question  would  not  be  asked,  because 
the  people  are  so  conscious  that  it  is  they  and  not  the  head 
of  the  state  who  rules  that  they  hardly  take  the  trouble  to 
know  the  names  of  their  officers.  But  I  have  been  asking 
lots  of  people  that  same  question,  and  I  think  I  have  got 
near  the  root  of  the  matter.  The  key-note  to  Roosevelt  is 
a  boundless  ambition.  He  is  physically  brave;  morally,  as 
ambitious  men  always  must  be,  weak.  In  four  distinct 
cases  I  have  learned  of  he  has  flinched,  has  not  played  the 
strenuous  part — the  tariff,  the  franchise  tax  law,  the  civil 
service,  and  the  trusts.  He  has  unquestionably  surrendered 


"  Why  I  Join  the  Socialists"          255 

to  the  great  monopolies  on  that  question.  His  saying  about 
pulling  all  up  instead  of  a  few  down,  means,  Don't  attack 
the  Bad  Wealth,  but  give  the  people  some  generalities  of 
reform.  We  cannot  pull  all  up  without  pulling  down  the 
few  who  are  in  the  way,  e.g.,  George  III.,  the  slaveholders, 
and  ancien  regime,  etc.  Is  it  not  so?  Let  us  say:  Pull 
down  the  few  bad  men  in  the  way,  then  pull  all  up  including 
the  bad  men  we  pulled  down.  How  do  you  like  that? 

His  notes  in  this  spring  of  1903 — the  last  of  his  life — 
show  the  predominance  of  socialism  in  his  thoughts, 
and  his  belief  in  its  exalted  mission.  He  often  de- 
scribed it  by  the  term  democracy.  "We  call  it  social- 
ism,"  he  said,  "to  give  it  the  zest  of  a  new  name,  but 
it  is  the  same  old  democracy  with  a  new  motto — that 
there  can  be  no  good  millionaire,  but  a  millionaire 
democracy."  It  was,  he  said,  the  one  political  voice 
now  coming  from  the  People.  "It  may  be  crude, 
sectarian,  even  bitter.  .  .  .  Our  old  politics,  Demo- 
cratic and  Republican,  rest  on  habit,  the  persistence  of 
organisation,  on  the  bribes  of  money,  on  power,  on 
selfish  self-interest,  but  there  is  no  heart-beat  in  them, 
no  hope  or  love."  Beyond  all  he  saw  that  it  meant 
for  mankind  a  spiritual  and  ethical  re-birth.  It  was 
to  become  a  religion,  the  new  religion.  "Christianity 
is  the  religion  that  was,  socialism  is  the  religion  that  is 
to  be, "  he  wrote  in  his  last  note-book: 

Socialism  comes  with  the  grandest  message  of  enfranchise- 
ment ever  heard  on  earth.  It  says  to  the  poorest  man,  to 
the  most  cruelly  neglected  child — You  should  be  a  man. 
You  are  owner  with  all  your  brothers  and  sisters  of  this 
great  civilisation,  this  magnificent  heritage  of  liberties  and 
properties  and  aspirations  and  memories.  These  streets 
are  your  streets ;  these  wonderful  achievements  exist  because 
your  estate  gives  them  protection  and  stimulus.  It  is  you 


256  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

who  are  of  this  royal  family  of  real  rulers.  It  is  this 
democracy  which  strikes  from  the  poor  and  the  weak  the 
many  shackles  of  poverty,  ignorance,  monopoly,  and  opens 
to  every  man  the  closed  door  of  opportunity  to  be  all  that 
he  may  be,  which  proclaims  that  everything  is  the  property 
of  everybody,  that  each  is  the  steward  for  his  brother  and 
his  neighbour  of  all  that  he  is  and  has,  that  without  money 
and  without  price,  by  just  being  born  into  the  ruling  family 
of  all  the  people  each  one  can  have  this  salvation;  it  is  this 
democracy  which  proclaims  the  dignity  of  manhood  and 
womanhood,  and  it  is  the  same  democracy  which  enlight- 
ened the  world  of  the  Jews,  and  the  Greeks  and  Romans, 
and  Dutch  and  English  and  American  in  their  days  of 
liberty,  but  [is]  now  taking  another  great  step  forward  into 
a  new  liberty — the  liberty  of  labour. l 

His  faith  in  private  co-operation  as  a  wing  of  the 
advance  movement  had  grown  with  the  years.  When 
it  is  understood,  he  now  said,  that  one  half  of  socialism 
must  be  co-operative  and  the  other  half  democratic 
(political),  socialism  will  lose  both  its  terrors  and  its 
absurdities.  But  neither  side  could  advance  inde- 
pendently. 

Is  it  conceivable  [he  had  asked  a  correspondent  in  1901] 
that  co-operative  production  could  be  entered  upon  by  our 
people  to  any  extent  without  a  great  political  revolution 
like  that  of  New  Zealand — lucky  we,  if  we  can  have  it 
peaceful  like  New  Zealand — to  effect  a  redistribution  of 
property  and  economic  power  by  the  use  of  popular  force 
through  the  government?  I  fear  not.  Even  farming  is 
becoming  a  matter  of  wholesale  machinery  and  huge 
capital.  The  process  is  but  just  begun,  but  you  will  see  it 
develop  almost  as  rapidly  in  the  near  future  as  the  centrali- 
sation of  the  mechanical  arts.  That  is  the  only  great  field 
remaining  to  be  plutocratised. 

1  Note-book,  1903. 


"  Why  I  Join  the  Socialists  "          257 

While  so  staunch  a  believer,  he  had  not  yet  formally 
joined  any  organisation.  He  had  not  affiliated  with 
the  Social  Democratic  party,  which  grew  out  of  the 
Socialist  Labor  party,  although  he  voted  the  party 
ticket  in  1900  as  in  1896.  It  had  been  to  give  this 
growing  political  aspiration  of  the  people  every  help 
that  he  had  gone  to  New  Zealand,  and  as  he  said  good- 
bye to  a  friend  in  the  Chicago  station  he  said  that 
when  he  came  back  he  was  going  to  work  for  socialism. 
While  the  Social  Democratic  party  was  still  in  a  forma- 
tive state  in  1901,  a  series  of  internal  contests  resulted 
in  its  union  at  the  "  Unity  Convention  "  with  the  major 
section  of  the  Socialist  Labor  party,  forming  the  Socialist 
party.  After  this  the  American  elements  flowed  in  and 
the  party  began  to  be  released  from  a  narrow  dogmat- 
ism, which  at  times  misintrepreting  Marx  himself,  had 
held  the  inchoate  American  socialist  movement  in  the 
rigid  bonds  of  a  sect.  When  lecturing  in  Calif  orniaat  that 
time — 1901 — Lloyd  communicated  with  the  State  secre- 
tary, and  was  on  the  verge  of  joining  the  party, and  would 
undoubtedly,  he  said  later,  have  done  so  had  he  remained 
longer.  A  temporary  residence  in  Boston  followed,  and 
this  together  with  a  journey  to  Europe  and  the  current  of 
the  work  in  the  coal  strike  case  brought  it  about  that  not 
until  the  spring  of  1903  did  he  find  himself  again  in  his 
own  State.  He  then  took  steps  to  join ,  weighing  carefully 
his  course,  and  consulting  friends.  He  was  not  familiar 
with  details,  such  as  the  formulation  of  principles  in 
the  party  pledges.  Indeed,  these  had  been  but  recently 
promulgated.  He  wrote  to  the  national  secretary  with 
the  intention  of  becoming  a  member  at  large. 

WINNETKA,  ILL.,  April  20,  1903. 
MY  DEAR  MR.  MAILLY: 

I  have  your  letters  and  the  literature  which  you  sent. 


258  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

The  wording  of  your  application  for  membership  gives  me 
some  difficulty.  The  practical  programme  that  the  party 
puts  forth  has  my  unqualified  assent.  I  would  not  diminish 
it  in  one  particular,  but  would  be  perfectly  willing,  on  the 
contrary,  to  add  some  things  to  it.  But  I  cannot,  for  the 
life  of  me,  see  how  the  present  social  contest  can  be  de- 
scribed as  one  between  the  capitalists  and  the  working  class. 
To  me  it  appears  to  be  a  contest  between  the  people  and  all 
those  who  commit  depredations  upon  them.  The  "  people  " 
and  the  "working  class"  are  certainly  not,  according  to 
present  usage,  convertible  terms. 

The  farmers,  for  instance,  are  not  covered  by  the  term 
"working  class"  as  it  would  be  understood  by  a  "labour" 
audience.  Farmers  are  proprietors  of  land  and  employers 
of  labour.  Their  votes  are  necessary  to  the  success  of  any 
movement  that  overthrows  the  monopolies.  The  farmers, 
I  am  told  by  Wayland,  are  joining  the  Socialist  party  in 
considerable  numbers  in  the  West.  They,  therefore,  are 
able  to  co-operate  with  the  movement,  although  apparently 
excluded  from  it  by  terminology. 

I  don't  want  to  join  the  party  only  to  have  the  experience 
of  being  thereafter  incontinently  "fired"  out  of  it.  My 
understanding  of  the  true  "class  consciousness"  is  that  one 
should  be  opposed  to  all  classes.  My  ' '  class  consciousness ' ' 
is  an  anti-class  consciousness.  I  stand  for  the  people  and 
for  the  extinction  of  all  tendencies  that  create  "class" — 
whether  a  capitalist  class  or  a  working  class. 

Mr.  Thomas  J.  Morgan  tells  me  that  these  difficulties  of 
mine  are  no  obstacle  to  my  joining  the  party.  I  am  in  en- 
tire sympathy  with  its  practical  work,  and  I  think  my  social- 
istic theory  is  as  sweeping  and  radical  as  any  one's  could  be. 

Now,  write  me  frankly  what  you  think  about  the  relation 
of  the  difficulties  I  have  indicated  to  the  probability  of  my 
being  able  to  co-operate,  in  good  faith  and  effectively,  with 
the  organisation. 

The  Secretary  replied: 


"Why  I  Join  the  Socialists"          259 

OMAHA,  NEB.,  May  4,  1903. 
DEAR  MR.  LLOYD: 

Pardon  my  delay  in  answering  your  letter  of  April  2Oth, 
as  I  have  been  too  busy  to  give  it  the  attention  it  deserved. 

I  must  confess  to  also  being  in  some  perplexity  just  how 
to  answer  you,  and  this  because  I  am  merely  the  executive 
of  the  Socialist  party  and  hardly  in  a  position  to  enter  into  a 
discussion  upon  points  that  may  be  more  academic  than 
anything  else.  Our  platform  is  supposed  to  define  the 
party's  position,  and  appears  to  me  to  be  quite  explicit 
enough.  I  may  say  this,  however,  that  the  central  and 
basic  principle  upon  which  the  Socialist  party  makes  its 
propaganda,  and  has  been  organised,  is  that  there  is  a  class 
struggle  waging  in  modern  society,  caused  by  the  existing 
economic  system.  This  class  struggle  divides  the  owners  of 
the  means  of  production  and  distribution  into  one  class,  and 
the  non-owners  into  another.  All  this  you  have  read  and 
heard  before  many  times,  and  it  is  perhaps  superfluous  for 
me  to  repeat  it.  I  only  do  so  in  order  to  emphasise  the 
position  of  the  Socialist  party.  We,  too,  are  opposed  to 
the  existence  of  classes,  and  we  seek  the  establishment  of 
a  system  which  will  make  the  division  of  humanity  into 
classes  with  antagonistic  interests  impossible.  But  we  are 
forced  to  accept  the  fact  that  classes  now  exist  and  to  or- 
ganise and  fight  with  the  working  class  accordingly. 

The  farmers'  question  is  one  that  has  been  discussed 
somewhat  extensively  in  the  socialist  press  of  recent  years, 
because  the  numerical  strength  and  economic  position  of 
the  farmers  of  America  demand  special  respect  and  atten- 
tion. It  is  true  that  many  farmers  are  joining  the  party 
and  that  more  and  more  of  them  are  proclaiming  them- 
selves socialists,  but  it  is  generally  accepted  that  the 
dispropertied  working  class  in  the  industrial  centres,  and 
elsewhere,  must  be  the  leading  and  guiding  force  in  the 
direction  and  control  of  the  Socialist  party.  .  .  . 

Frankly,  I  don't  think  there  will  be  very  much  difficulty 
in  your  being  able  to  co-operate  with  the  party  organisation. 


260  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

We  have  progressed  beyond  the  stage  where  men  are  "fired " 
out  incontinently,  except  for  flagrant  breaches  of  faith  and 
violation  of  our  principles.  Nevertheless,  I  must  confess 
my  appreciation  of  your  desire  to  act  in  good  faith  with  the 
party  and  have  n't  the  slightest  doubt  but  that  this  desirable 
end  can  be  accomplished.  .  .  . 

Lloyd's  difficulty  was,  as  he  said,  one  of  "wording." 
That  he  recognised  the  existence  of  "the  class  struggle" 
— the  irreconcilable  conflict  between  capital  and  labour 
— all  the  words  and  works  of  at  least  fifteen  years  prove. 
He  was  a  close  thinker,  highly  conscientious  when  pledg- 
ing his  allegiance,  and  this  point  now  made  him  pause. 
He  talked  the  matter  over  with  several  people. 

Not  only  was  he  on  the  verge  of  joining  the  Socialist 
party  [wrote  a  prominent  socialist  after  a  discussion 
with  him],  but  he  did  not  object  to  the  use  by  that  party  of 
the  class  struggle  idea.  He  did  not  condemn  the  thinking 
that  lay  behind  the  use  of  this  phrase  by  the  socialists,  but 
he  deplored  the  effect  of  this  phrase  and  what  he  considered 
its  certain  misapprehension  by  the  general  public.  ...  I 
left  him  with  the  impression  .  .  .  that  it  was  the  merest 
accident  that  he  was  not  already  in  the  organisation. 

He  had  always  in  word  and  deed  emphasised  the 
fact  that  the  whole  community  was  in  need  of  justice; 
that  the  labour  question  was  not  only  the  labourer's 
question.  The  working  men,  he  said,  were  the  pioneers 
of  us  all.  As  the  weakest  they  had  felt  first  and  worst 
the  pain  caused  by  the  ossification  of  competition  into 
consolidation.  "We  are  all  caught  in  the  same  current. " 

...  It  is  surprising  that  the  middle  class  do  not  foresee 
their  fate  [he  wrote  to  his  father].  ...  It  means  the 
extinction  of  the  people.  But  they  don't  see  it;  they  do 
not  understand  that  when  the  working  man  complains  it  is 
their  grievance  that  he  is  voicing,  tho  not  in  precisely  their 


"  Why  I  Join  the  Socialists  "          261 

way,  and  that  he  has  spoken  first  because  he  has  felt  the 
pressure  first  and  most.  He  is  weaker  than  the  farmer  or 
the  small  capitalist  because  he  owns  nothing  and  has  no 
margin  of  fat  to  live  on. 

As  he  did  not  live  to  give  publicly  a  full,  rounded 
expression  of  his  position,  we  are  dependent  upon  his 
notes,  which  were,  however,  often  written  tentatively. 
They  indicate  that  he  believed  in  rallying  the  whole 
people  under  the  banner  of  socialism.  The  saying  of 
Karl  Marx,  "Working  men  of  the  world,  unite," 
should  be,  he  wrote,  "People  of  the  world,  unite." 
His  note-book  of  1902-3  says: 

The  doctrine  of  the  Karl  Marxites  that  the  Labour  move- 
ment, the  Social- Democratic  revolution,  is  a  class  move- 
ment is  wrong,  ist.  Because  this  movement  is  the 
continuation  of  the  democratic  movement  of  thousands  of 
years,  and  less  and  less  is  a  class  movement.  2d.  Because 
the  spectacle  of  Joseph  II. ,  Stein,  Hardenberg,  Lafayette, 
Mirabeau,  Washington,  Hancock,  Wendell  Phillips,  Las- 
salle,  Karl  Marx,  Bebel,  Singer,  Liebknecht,  leading  in  the 
various  emancipations,  is  a  visible  personal  refutation. 
3d.  Because  it  is  clearly  a  movement  for  the  abolition  of 
class, — an  anti-class  movement.  The  Americans  are  fond 
of  saying  we  have  no  classes.  Delusive  as  this  boast  is,  it  at 
least  shows  that  the  people  feel  that  the  spirit  of  our  insti- 
tutions demands  that  there  should  be  no  class.  These 
Karl  Marx  sectarians  do  what  they  blame  the  oppressor  for 
doing,  look  only  at  their  own  class,  while  really  the  work- 
men are  the  minority. 

These  Karl  Marx  people  say  this  is  a  class  movement, 
because  if  present  causes  continue  in  operation,  all  farmers, 
storekeepers,  mechanics,  professional  men  will  be  reduced 
to  one  class — the  proletariat.  But  the  paramount  fact  is 
precisely  that  the  movement  for  Social- Democracy  is  of 
recruits  from  all  these  classes  who  have  rallied  precisely  to 


262  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

prevent  this  proletarianisation,  by  replacing  this  system 
with  one  in  which  all  have  equality  in  industry.  .  .  . 

"Out  of  our  larger  individualism,  larger  than  Marx 
or  Engels  dreamed  of,  will  be  built,"  he  wrote  again, 
"a  larger  socialism  than  they  dreamed  of."  After 
reading  an  article  on  European  socialism  in  1901 x  in 
which  the  author  distinguished  between  the  socialistic 
section  and  the  democratic  section,  the  former  insisting 
that  the  movement  shall  be  wholly  proletarian,  the 
latter  that  it  shall  include  all  elements  opposed  to  the 
present  wrongs,  Lloyd  appended  the  note:  "In  this 
view  I  am  certainly  not  a  socialist — but  a  democrat." 

To  seek  to  initiate  social  reform  by  calling  upon  "the 
proletariat2  to  unite"  is  to  call  for  an  impossibility,  because 
they  are  proletariat  and  proletariat  cannot  unite.  Their 
reformation  must  be  part  of  the  whole  reformation.  .  .  . 
Unless  our  revolution  is  to  be  an  outburst  of  blind,  animal 
fury,  it  will  not  be  initiated  by  any  one  of  the  proletariat. 
The  initiation  will  be  done  by  those  who  have  some  power 
of  initiation — those  belonging  to  classes  not  wholly  ex- 
ploited. The  proletariat  will  toil  on.  They  will  do  the 
most  of  the  hard  work  and  get  the  least  of  the  benefits,  but 
little  as  these  are  they  will  give  the  masses  a  vast  accession 
of  liberty  and  prosperity. 

Several  of  his  last  notes  bore  the  same  refrain. 

Socialism  is  the  work  of  the  proletariat  only  in  the  sense 
that  it  is  the  work  of  that  pauper  which  lives  within  every 
one  of  us,  who  either  by  being  oppressor  or  oppressed  is 

1  Annals  of  the  American  Academy  of  Political  and  Social  Science, 
November,  1901. 

3  Mr.  Lloyd  manifestly  here  and  elsewhere,  as  on  the  last  page  of 
Newest  England,  uses  the  term  proletariat  not  in  the  sense  of  the  whole 
class  of  the  community  dependent  upon  capital  for  its  wages  and  salaries, 
but  as  the  poorest  class, those  having  the  lowest  degree  of  economic  power. 


"  Why  I  Join  the  Socialists  "          263 

disinherited  of  the  best  wealth,  the  wealth  that  is  most 
truly  his — the  wealth  of  full  communion  with  a  full  fellow- 
ship of  full  fellows.  .  .  . 

The  idea  that  the  proletariat  would  supplant  the 
other  classes  was,  he  believed,  a  futility.  The  proleta- 
riat was,  he  said,  being  continually  destroyed,  burnt 
out.  "It  will  be  the  middle  class  that  will  survive 
and  will  furnish  the  human  material  of  the  new  order, " 
he  wrote  in  1902. 

No  student  could  interpret  him  as  advocating  the 
survival  of  the  middle  class  as  a  class  and  as  an  exploiter 
of  the  workers.  That  would  be  to  misunderstand  the 
spirit  of  his  whole  life's  work,  which  from  first  to  last 
declared  that  the  wages  system  must  go.  "Every  man 
a  working  man,  and  every  working  man  free,"  was  his 
saying  in  1889,  and  always.  He  recognised  the  slavery 
of  the  workers  and  countenanced  no  programme  which 
did  not  include  their  complete  emancipation,  but  he 
did  not  apparently  believe  that  it  was  to  be  achieved 
only  by  them  or  only  for  them.  The  new  love  for  the 
oppressed  would  overflow  class  boundaries.  "Old  and 
young,  rich  and  poor,  learned  and  unlearned,  high  and 
low,  labourer  and  capitalist,  out  of  all  classes  will  come 
the  noble  army  of  martyrs,  but  principally  out  of  the 
labourers,  the  low,  the  poor,  the  unlearned,  the  young."  * 
His  words,  as  in  the  resolutions  on  the  Pullman  strike, 2 
show  that  he  believed  it  unjust  that  society  put  upon  the 
most  burdened  class  the  winning  of  an  emancipation 
which  is  to  benefit  all.  He  saw  that  the  labour  move- 
ment and  the  resistance  to  monopoly  were  parts  of  the 
same  advance.  He  put  himself  outside  of  his  own  class, 
of  every  class,  and  surveyed  the  entire  field.  His  heart 

1  Note-book,  1888.  'See  Vol.  I.,  p.  153. 


264  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

beat  closer  to  the  working  class,  but  never  lost  the 
sympathetic  realisation  of  the  thraldom  of  the  whole 
people.  This  was  so  distinctively  his  attitude  that  a 
correspondent,  one  of  the  closest  and  keenest  analysts 
of  him  and  his  work,  wrote  to  him1 : 

If  I  were  called  upon  to  name  the  special  prominency 
characterising  you  as  an  author,  I  would  say  it  is  your 
mission  to  bring  the  followers  of  Marx  to  more  extensive, 
accurate,  and  sounder  inductions,  and  thereby  give  social- 
ism the  desired  perfection  of  its  theory  and  science. 

It  had  been  his  continual  thought  to  widen  the  area  of 
the  resisting  side  in  the  struggle.  "I  have  little  confid- 
ence in  a  class  movement,"  he  wrote,  "even  tho  it  be 
so  good  a  class  as  labour. "  He  urged  business  men 
and  the  middle  class,  generally,  to  make  common  cause 
with  the  working  men.  For  many  years  it  had  been  one 
of  his  conscious  aims  to  make  men  of  property  see  that 
they,  too,  belonged  with  the  exploited.  He  had  in  sym- 
pathy continually  warned  them  publicly  and  privately 
not  to  be  confounded  with  the  criminal  rich  but  to 
stand  forth  against  monopoly  and  with  the  workers. 

It  is  not  patriotism  alone  that  can  lead  us,  ...  [he  had 
said  in  1898].  It  must  be  patriotism  of  the  world,  command 
of  all  the  weapons  and  auxiliaries  of  politics,  and  above  all, 
with  an  independence  invulnerable  by  the  cruel  and  terrific 
assaults  that  have  been  made,  and  will  be  made,  socially, 
financially,  and  legally,  upon  the  men  who  dare  stand  forth 
for  the  people.  It  must,  in  short,  be  patriotism  with 
property.  Religion  has  advanced  by  the  conflict  of  priest 
and  priest;  science  by  that  of  doctor  and  doctor;  and  eco- 
nomic freedom  will  be  won  by  property  against  property. 
If  there  is  a  practical  word  to  be  spoken  at  this  moment,  it 

'John  C.  Reed,  Atlanta,  Georgia,  January  25,  1901. 


"Why  I  Join  the  Socialists"          265 

is  to  call  on  public-spirited  men  of  substance — men  well-to- 
do  in  deeds  as  well  as  title-deeds,  to  lead  the  people.  .  .  . 
Such  men  must  be  about  this  work  while  they  still  have  the 
means.  .  .  .  "Let  us  pauperise  you  now  and  we  will  let 
you  democratise  us  by-and-by, "...  the  monopolists  were 
saying  to  the  people  of  the  world.  They  would  make  pro- 
letarians of  all  reformers  with  resources,  and  so  deprive 
them  of  the  means  of  winning. 

If  I  have  any  hope  in  this  work  [he  wrote  in  1900  to 
Theodore  Oilman,  the  writer  on  the  money  question],  it 
is  to  impress  men  of  your  class  with  the  importance  of 
taking  time  by  the  forelock,  and  giving  our  country  a  re- 
form instead  of  a  revolution — I  do  not  mean  a  French 
Revolution.  That  is  not  what  I  am  afraid  of.  What 
I  fear  is  a  plutocratic  revolution  which  will  bind  us  in  a 
worse  than  Roman  rigidity  until  we  break  apart  by  a  sort 
of  decay.  I  have  little  hope  of  producing  much  effect  upon 
the  employers  of  America.  They  think  they  have  so 
complete  advantage  of  the  working  man  that  it  is  not 
necessary  for  them  to  make  any  concessions.  What  such 
men  forget,  and  what  their  class,  in  history,  has  forgotten,  is 
that  they  may  push  their  advantage  too  far. 

Thus  he  counselled  reformers  to  husband  well  their 
resources.  He  himself  wasted  no  time  or  strength,  spent 
himself  and  his  money  with  the  most  minute  care. 

One  thing,  however,  you  said  which  startled  and  dis- 
mayed me  [he  wrote  to  Mayor  Jones  in  1899,  when  he  was 
leading  the  great  campaign  in  Toledo], and  you  must  forgive 
me  speaking  of  it.  .  .  .  You  said  .  .  .  that  all  that  you 
are  and  have  you  hold  at  the  service  of  the  public.  I  felt 
upon  reading  that  the  same  as  I  did  when  I  learned  through 
the  papers  of  your  proposition  to  the  city  of  Toledo  with 
regard  to  taking  the  gas  plant  there.  There  are  many 
reasons  for  riot  making  a  martyr  of  one's  self;  one  of  the 


266  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

most  cogent  is  that  one's  duty  is  to  save  himself  to  fight 
another  day.  It  is  the  part  of  a  true  friend  to  give  an 
opportunity  for  second  thought  to  one  who  is  inspired  by 
the  excitement  and  crying  needs  of  such  a  situation  as  you 
now  find  yourself  in.  We  must  not  only  love  as  doves,  but 
be  as  wise  as  serpents.  Do  not  spend  on  this  campaign 
anything  more  than  you  can  afford  to  lose  out  of  your 
current  means.  One  of  the  troubles  with  our  side  is  that 
our  men,  in  the  spirit  of  Mohammedan  self-abnegation,  are 
continually  destroying  themselves.  .  .  .  Keep  yourself  well 
in  hand;  be  as  cool  in  your  head  as  you  are  hot  in  your 
heart.  Remember  that  money  is  the  sinews  of  war,  and 
that  if  you  keep  possession  of  the  means,  you  can  carry  on 
not  only  this  campaign  but  a  score  of  campaigns  to  follow. 
I  know  that  you  can  forgive  me  for  entering  into  so  private 
a  matter  as  this,  for  I  know  you  will  understand  the  spirit 
in  which  I  write.  .  .  . 

P.S.     I  enclose  a  little  of  the  sinews  of  war. 

Hampden  and  Pym,  he  reminded  us  in  1898,  were 
described  by  contemporary  chronicles  as  wasting  their 
substance  riding  around  to  raise  the  people.  "Men  of 
substance  are  beginning  to  ride  again,"  said  he,  who 
had  himself  been  one  of  the  first  to  mount.  His  last 
words  were  full  of  appeals  to  the  whole  people  to 
organise.  He  exhorted  them  to  follow  the  example 
of  the  labour  unions,  which  were,  he  said,  the  best 
friends  the  people  have  to-day.  "For  it  is  accurately, 
scientifically,  alarmingly  true,"  he  said,  "that  between 
the  people  and  the  money  monopoly  power,  that  most 
dreadful  of  tyrannies,  there  stands  to-day  but  one 
organisation  that  can  hold  the  fort  while  the  people 
rally,  and  that  is  the  organisation  of  labour. " 

We  must  not  let  them  [the  labour  unions]  be  destroyed. 
We  must  learn  the  lesson  they  teach  us.  The  people  itself 
must  organise,  if  it  will  survive. 


"Why  I  Join  the  Socialists"          267 

Between  organised  labour  and  organised  capital 
there  stood  in  the  United  States  some  fifty  millions  of 
the  common  people.  "They  have  no  union,  no  trust." 
To  whom  can  they  turn,  he  asked,  this  great  unorganised 
majority,"  the  folks  who  are  only  folks — the  storekeeper, 
the  village  blacksmith,  the  dressmaker,  the  cross- 
roads district  school  teacher,  the  country  doctor — 
behind  them  all,  the  host  of  the  farmers?  .  .  .  Here 
between  organised  labour  and  organised  capital  is 
Something  with  fifty  millions  of  stomachs  to  feed, 
fifty  million  bodies  to  warm,  and  clothe,  and  shelter, 
and  no  organisation.  What  does  this  middle  class 
propose  to  do  about  it?"  To  unite  them,  he  believed 
that  the  Socialist  party  was  the  needed  medium.  He 
wrote  about  them  in  his  last  note-book  (1903) : 

Look  at  the  campaign  committees  of  the  Republican  party 
and  Democratic  party  in  the  last  presidential  campaign,  and 
you  will  see  representatives  of  the  same  great  syndicates — • 
which  have  only  to  be  spelled  sin  and  not  syn — or  both.  These 
unorganised  millions  (of  the  common  people)  can  organise 
only  through  the  Socialist  party.  Improvisations  in  politics, 
like  the  People's  party, — an  impromptu, — will  not  be  tried 
again.  The  men  who  saved  the  country  at  the  beginning 
of  the  American  Revolution  were  called  minute-men  because 
they  were  ready  any  minute  to  go  to  their  duty.  The  men 
who  sold  out  the  People's  party  to  the  Democrats  ought  to 
be  called  minute-men  also,  because  they  were  ready  to  quit 
any  minute.  With  the  greatest  problem  of  the  ages  thicken- 
ing in  an  angry  storm  about  the  heads  of  the  American 
people  not  one  note  of  modern  up-to-date  leadership  has 
been  heard  out  of  that  fusion  and  none  ever  will  be.  All 
we  get  is  a  second-hand  Jeffersonian  Democracy  which 
Jefferson  would  be  the  first  to  repudiate  if  he  were  alive 
to-day.  Jefferson  became  a  Jeffersonian  Democrat  by 
marching  at  the  head  of  the  people's  thoughts,  not  treading 


268  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

on  their  coat  tails  behind.  We  want  no  more  Get  Rich 
Quick  combinations  in  politics, — no  more  idolatry  of  indi- 
viduals, no  more  Leaders  in  Triumphal  Tours.  It  (the 
American  people)  wants  a  party  of  real  democrats,  which 
rules  itself  including  its  leaders,  a  party  of  real  republicans 
who  act  for  public  things,  not  for  private. 

One  of  the  gravest  obstacles  to  the  united  action  of  the 
people  in  his  own  country  lay,  he  believed,  in  the  cleav- 
age between  the  white  and  black  races.  He  had  been 
closely  observing  this  problem.  Booker  T.  Washington 
had  once  urged  him  to  come  to  a  Black  Farmers'  Con- 
ference, saying:  "Your  services  and  your  articles  are 
far  more  valuable  to  us  than  you  can  realise. "  Lloyd 
went  and  counted  it  one  of  the  most  remarkable  experi- 
ences of  his  life.  He  wrote  to  Mr.  Washington  in  1901  : 

I  am  thinking  all  the  time  about  the  Negro  race  and  the 
line  along  which  its  evolution  might  be  assisted  by  its 
friends.  I  wish  that  in  some  way  the  co-operative  spirit 
might  be  communicated  to  the  Negroes,  so  that  their  develop- 
ment might  be  turned  into  some  such  lines  as  that  of  the 
working  men  of  England  and  the  Continent  of  Europe. 

Though  he  nowhere  expressed  his  ideas  publicly, 
his  private  words  indicate  the  increasing  importance 
he  accorded  the  problem  and  the  relation  of  socialism 
to  its  solution.  He  wrote  to  Professor  W.  E.  B.  Dubois 
in  March,  1903: 

This  is  a  subject  in  which  I  am  very  deeply  interested. 
I  consider  it  perhaps,  on  the  whole,  the  most  critical  one 
now  before  the  American  people,  equalling,  if  not  surpassing, 
in  immediate  and  remote  influence,  the  question  of  the 
trusts. 

To  John  C.  Reed  of  Georgia,  a  Fabian  socialist,  who 
sent  him  proofs  of  his  book,  The  Brothers1  War,  he  wrote : 


"  Why  I  Join  the  Socialists  "         269 

LITTLE  COMPTON,  R.  I.,  21  June,  1903. 

...  I  have  examined  the  book  carefully;  it  is  full  of 
matter  to  be  conned  studiously  and  admiringly.  .  .  .  The 
difficulty  is  that  there  is  no  demand,  no  market  demand, 
that  is,  for  reform  literature.  I  have  not  got  back  from 
my  books  a  tenth  of  what  they  cost  me.  .  .  . 

I  am  bound  in  frankness  to  avow  to  you  that  there  are 
some  points  as  to  which  I  dissent  strongly  from  your  views. 
If  we  have  a  right  to  disfranchise  the  Negroes,  then  the 
plutocrats  and  their  professors  and  experts  have  a  right  to 
disfranchise  us.  The  disfranchisement  of  the  Negroes  is 
a  policy  of  ruin  for  the  white  people  of  the  South.  Nothing 
you  could  say,  so  eloquently  and  truthfully,  about  the 
difficulties  of  the  present  situation  could  increase  my 
present  sympathy  for  both  races,  and  my  full  appreciation 
of  the  fact  that  you,  the  whites,  are  largely  the  innocent 
victims.  But  the  problem  cannot  be  cured  by  reversion 
to  the  political  theories  of  pre-democratic  man.  The 
mistake  that  was  made  at  the  close  of  the  war,  was  not  in 
giving  the  Negro  so  much  as  the  suffrage,  but  in  not  giving 
him  more.  He  should  have  been  established  in  ample  guar- 
antees of  education,  access  to  land,  and  employment, — as 
also  should  the  whites!  Leave  him  the  vote,  and  you  or  we, 
or  both,  have  got  to  see  that  he  still  gets  there.  Take  away 
the  vote,  and  we  will  attempt  again  what  has  always  failed — 
to  govern  men  without  help  from  them.  I  am  strenuous 
about  this,  because  I  believe — and  have  believed  for  years — 
that  in  this  Negro  question  at  the  South  is  the  touchstone  of 
our  future.  Not  sentimentally,  but  practically,  I  believe 
that  the  working  men  of  the  North  and  South  will  be 
defeated  in  their  unionisations,  and  we  will  be  defeated  in 
our  anti-plutocratic  democratisations  unless  our  "scheme 
of  things  entire"  is  broad  and  deep  and  just  enough  to  find 
out  how  the  Negro  can  be  taken  into  the  brotherhood. 
The  last  thing  you  white  people  of  the  South  can  afford  is  to 
have  the  Negro  among  you  without  a  vote.  The  truth  is  the 
problem  is  too  grievous  for  the  South  alone;  it  should  be 


270  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

taken  up  by  the  whole  nation.  Pardon  my  outspokenness. 
I  admire  your  book  greatly  and  want  much  to  see  you 
bring  it  out.  .  .  . 

After  receiving  Mr.  Reed's  answer,  he  again  wrote: 

...  2  July,  1903.  .  .  .  You  were  very  good  to  answer 
me  so  frankly  and  kindly.  ...  It  is  of  vital  importance  as 
to  a  matter  of  this  supreme  moment  that  we  all  get  one 
another's  points  of  view.  This  Negro  question  is  to  me  the 
most  terrible  of  all  those  we  face.  I  will  say  to  you  what  I 
would  not  say  publicly,  that  I  see  in  it  the  possibility  of  at 
least  two  civil  wars.  In  it  are  concentrated  the  intensest 
aspects  of  our  labour  question,  of  the  imperial  question, 
and  of  deeper  problems  still.  .  .  . 

Did  the  enfranchisement  of  the  Negro  as  a  policy  ever 
present  itself  to  your  mind  in  this  way:  that  having  the 
vote  by  no  means  made  the  Negro,  however  great  his 
numerical  majority,  the  ruler  of  the  community?  That 
nowhere  have  the  majority,  enfranchised,  become  the  ruler, 
that  you  could  afford,  cannot  afford  not,  to  give  the  Negro 
a  vote,  for  the  benefit  you  will  gain  in  the  education,  expe- 
rience, balance,  content,  it  will  give  him?  Numbers  never 
ruled  anywhere. 

Writing  on  this  to  George  Hooker  (1900),  he  added 
concerning  any  policy  of  disfranchising  the  poor  or 
ignorant: 

Disfranchisement  ought  to  begin,  if  anywhere,  with  the 
guilty;  with  the  men  who  are  educated  and  privileged, 
educated  and  corrupt,  educated  and  shirkers,  educated  and 
dangerous ;  not  with  the  simple  folk,  the  workers,  who  give 
everything  and  get  nothing,  and  are  almost  all  we  have  of 
virtue  and  honesty. 

In  general,  it  may  be  said  that  while  Mr.  Lloyd  had, 
for  at  least  a  decade,  advocated  the  principles  of 


"  Why  I  Join  the  Socialists  "          271 

socialism,  he  had  not  concerned  himself  with  the 
socialist  dialectic  which  up  to  this  time  had  never 
been  a  practical  or  pressing  issue  with  him.  His  few 
references  to  it  are  invariably  to  the  cant  terms  as 
quoted  by  some  American  propagandists  who  used  them 
either  not  in  their  perfect  meaning  or  as  technical 
abbreviations.  He  was  pre-eminently  a  thinker,  and 
an  independent  one,  and  his  philosophy  was  to  a 
remarkable  degree  the  result  of  the  play  of  social  forces 
upon  his  own  temperament  and  experience.  It  is, 
therefore,  interesting  and  illuminating  to  note  that, 
as  an  American  of  Americans,  he  reached  independently 
and  without  any  true  knowledge  of  Marx,  conclusions 
which  were  in  their  broad  outlines  parallel  with  those 
of  the  great  German — the  conscious  creation  by  the 
people  of  a  social  and  industrial  democracy  which  shall, 
by  its  very  nature,  put  an  end  to  all  class  struggles 
and  class  distinctions;  that  moreover  this  social  theory 
should  have  led  him,  an  idealist  and  practical  man  of 
affairs,  to  the  use  of  the  practical  medium  of  the 
socialists,  namely  the  Socialist  party  organisation, 
and  this  in  spite  of  his  disagreement  with  the  sectarian- 
ism which  at  that  time  still  characterised  it. 

His  correspondence  in  the  spring  of  1903  shows  him 
advancing  to  his  decision  to  join  the  party.  He  wrote 
to  a  group  of  men,  leaders  in  varied  walks  of  life, 
drawing  out  their  opinions;  to  John  Mitchell  and  Samuel 
Gompers,  representing  organised  labour;  to  his  friend 
of  the  ethical  movement,  William  M.  Salter;  to  pro- 
fessors of  social  science,  Richard  T.  Ely,  John  R. 
Commons,  George  D.  Herron;  to  various  socialists,  as 
J.  Ramsey  MacDonald  of  England,  and  of  America 
Eugene  V.  Debs,  A.  M.  Simons,  and  Thomas  J.  Morgan, 
to  William  Mailly,  national  secretary  of  the  party, 


272  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

and  to  James  S.  Smith,  secretary  for  Illinois;  to  liberal 
editors,  Samuel  Bowles,  and  Willis  J.  Abbot;  to  Elt- 
weed  Pomeroy,  the  disciple  of  direct  legislation;  to 
N.  O.  Nelson,  reformer  and  employer;  to  George  Fred 
Williams,  the  independent  in  politics;  to  W.  H. 
Stuart,  Fabian  socialist.  He  wrote  to  his  sister  in 
April:  "I  think  I  shall  formally  join  the  Socialist 
party.  See  Kropotkin's  tribute  in  his  new  book 
Mutual  Aid. "  * 
To  Hugo  Poetzsch  of  Germany,  he  wrote: 

WINNETKA,  ILL.,  May  21,  '03. 
MY  DEAR  MR.  POETZSCH: 

May  I  ask  you  to  send  me  the  best  statement  of  the 
issues  in  the  present  campaign  which  has  been  made  either 
by  the  Vorwaerts  or  by  one  of  your  speakers? 

I  am  about  to  join  the  Socialist  party  here,  so  that  I  shall 
be  able  to  sign  myself 

Your  comrade, 

H.  D.  LLOYD. 

Other  letters  in  June  were  as  follows.  To  Mr. 
Williams : 

.  .  .  My  mind  is  moving  towards  the  Socialistic  party. 
I  have  no  faith  whatever  in  the  Democratic  party.  Bryan, 
I  believe,  you  will  find  perfectly  immovable  on  the  question 
of  public  ownership  of  public  utilities.  I  think  he  would  be 
responsive  to  an  overwhelming  public  sentiment,  but  this 
is  not  what  we  want.  What  we  want  is  one  of  those  early 
rising  statesmen  who  will  get  up  and  produce  the  sentiment. 
I  am  not  going  to  act  with  any  precipitation  in  determining 
my  course.  I  feel  very  strongly  that  the  questions  in  which 
we  have  a  common  interest  are  approaching  a  stage  where 
definite  work  is  demanded.  This  work  can  be  accomplished 
only  through  practical  political  organisation.  The  only  such 

1  Page  270. 


"  Why  I  Join  the  Socialists  "         273 

organisation  within  sight  that  is  furnished  with  the  princi- 
ples, even  approximately  adequate,  is  the  Socialist  party. 
It  seems  like  a  waste  of  time  and  energy  to  go  to  work  and 
organise  another  party  when  we  have  one  already  in  the 
field.  Is  it  not  more  economical  to  enter  that  party, 
despite  its  faults  and  imperfections,  and  strive  to  remedy 
them,  than  to  make  a  fresh  start?  My  experience  with  the 
People's  party  leads  me  very  strongly  to  favour  this  course. 
The  Democracy  of  Chicago  have  advocated  public  owner- 
ship for,  I  think,  fifteen  years,  and  have  not  yet  done  one 
single  thing  to  accomplish  it.  The  moment  you  pass  out- 
side the  metropolitan  area  of  the  Democratic  party  you 
enter  the  belated  region  where  the  voter's  most  advanced 
notions  were  those  of  Jeffersonian  democracy  of  1803.  .  .  . 
But  in  this  same  area  of  rural  population  of  the  United 
States  you  find  a  great  many  very  ardent  and  intelligent 
socialists,  as  shown  by  the  remarkable  success  of  the 
Appeal  to  Reason. 

Another  thing  that  appeals  to  me  very  strongly  on  the 
socialistic  side  is  that  here  is  an  organisation  which  is 
already  international  and  our  problem  is  an  international 
problem.  It  can  never  be  settled  by  any  parochial  or  even 
patriotic  political  economy.  .  .  . 

To  Mr.  Salter: 

There  are  many  things  I  want  to  talk  over  with  you. 
For  one  thing,  I  have  about  made  up  my  mind  to  join  the 
Socialist  party,  though  with  many  misgivings.  Their 
thought  is  largely  antiquated ;  their  spirit  often  most  unprac- 
tical. But  where  else  can  one  find  any  principles  or  any 
organisation  that  even  approach  the  hem  of  our  problems? 

To  Mr.  Stuart: 

Your  very  interesting  article,  which  I  have  read  with  great 
care,  comes  to  me  at  a  critical  moment.  Like,  I  believe, 

VOL.  II.  — 18 


274  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

millions  of  more  or  less  awakened  Americans  I  feel  that 
"something  must  be  done,"  lest  worse  befall,  and  am 
anxiously  considering  whether  the  best  way  to  do  it  may 
not  be  for  us  to  join  the  Socialist  party.  What  gives  me 
pause  is  the  very  weaknesses  and  inaccuracies  you  so  justly 
criticise.  But  while  these  bulk  so  largely  in  the  outfit  of 
the  American  Socialists,  as  officially  organised,  the  party 
elsewhere  is  becoming  rapidly  "opportunist"  in  the  best 
sense.  In  Italy,  Germany,  France,  Belgium  this  is  the 
plain  drift.  Upholding  all  their  ideals,  and  even  professing 
the  faith  of  Marx,  they  are,  as  one  of  them  told  me  last  year 
in  Germany,  taking  all  they  can  get,  and  always  calling  for 
more.  Is  it  not  better  to  join  the  American  Socialists,  and 
move  with  them  in  that  direction  than  to  stay  with  the 
old  parties,  or  do  nothing,  or  start  a  new  party?  What 
hope  in  the  last  since  the  betrayal  of  the  People's  party? 
What  hope  in  any  of  the  other  three?  The  Socialist  party 
is  the  only  one  which  avows  a  social  ideal,  it  is  the  only  one 
which  by  being  international  and  ideal  promises  an  end  of 
war,  military  and  commercial,  it  is  the  only  one  which 
clearly  sees  that  the  next  great  step  is  the  extension  of 
democratic  principles  and  organisation  to  industry.  Can- 
not the  American  Socialists  enter  this  historic,  international, 
evolutionary  party,  and  put  it  where  it  belongs,  where 
American  experience  and  spiritualisation  of  democracy 
ought  to  put  it — at  the  active  front  of  the  new  democrati- 
sation  of  the  common  welfare?  These  are  the  questions  I 
am  asking  myself.  I  should  be  glad  to  know  what  you 
think  of  them.  I  think  our  evolution  of  the  evil  is  progressing 
too  rapidly  to  be  met  by  "the  instalment  plan."  .  .  . 

To  Mr.  Pomeroy: 

.  .  .  The  worm  must  turn  sometime.  I  am  ready  to 
turn  now.  Are  we  citizens  to  sit  still,  and  leave  all  the 
politics  to  the  oppressor,  who  asks  for  nothing  better? 

There  is  much  about  the  everlasting  "proletariat"  and 


"  Why  I  Join  the  Socialists  "          275 

"  class  conscious  "  slang  of  the  sectarian  socialists  that  makes 
me  squirm,  as  I  suppose  the  Biblical  cant  of  the  old  Puritans 
made  the  cavaliers'  faces  go  awry.  But  this  same  sour 
fanaticism  has  been  the  bitter  yeast  of  all  rise,  has  it 
not?  .  .  . 

The  national  secretary  of  the  Socialist  party  had 
asked  him  to  write  a  statement  of  his  reasons  for 
joining  which  might  be  furnished  to  the  socialist  press. 
It  was  probably  as  a  response  that  the  following 
manuscript  was  sketched  by  him;  it  is  in  his  own  hand- 
writing, and  is  dated  June  4,  1903,  and  is  manifestly 
fragmentary  and  unfinished. 

WHY  I  JOIN  THE  SOCIALISTS 

Party  is  an  evil  perhaps,  but  it  is  here  and  now  at  least  a 
necessary  evil.  The  independent  voter,  who  is  so  proud  of 
his  self-emancipation  from  partisan  thraldom,  and  pro- 
claims himself  too  good  for  the  contests  of  wit  and  interests 
in  caucuses  and  primaries  and  conventions,  gets  his 
choice  of  candidates  and  platforms  on  election  day  only 
because  other  men  give  it  to  him  by  doing  the  work  he  calls 
dirty.  Even  in  a  community  of  angels  or  archbishops,  there 
would  be  differences  of  opinion  as  to  aims  and  methods. 
The  angels  would  have  to  crystallise  in  organisation  about 
their  divergent  and  often  opposite  policies,  and  these 
organisations  would  be  parties.  The  independent  voter, 
the  no-party  reformer,  is  the  dead-beat  of  politics. 

New  times  bring  new  issues,  and  new  issues  bring  new 
parties.  It  was  so  with  the  slavery  question.  It  is  so  now 
with  the  question  which  is  becoming  as  supreme  an  issue  as 
slavery  was — the  question  which  has  so  many  different 
sides,  but  is  all  one  question — the  Labour  and  Capital 
Question;  the  Plutocracy  and  Democracy  Question;  the 
Public  Ownership  Question;  the  Trust  Question;  the 


276  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

Monopoly  Question;  the  Child  Labour  Question;  the  Unem- 
ployed Question;  the  Tariff  Question;  the  Land  Question; 
the  Currency  Question;  the  Drink  and  other  Social  Vice 
Question;  the  Religious  Indifference  Question;  the  Recur- 
rence of  Panics  Question;  the  Illiteracy  Question;  the 
Rights  of  Women  Question;  the  Peace  Question;  the  Lib- 
erty of  the  Individual  Question;  the  Imperialism  Question; 
the  Charity  Question;  the  Immigration  Question;  the 
Prison  Reform  Question;  the  Marriage  Question;  the 
Luxury  Question;  the  Depopulation  of  the  Country  Ques- 
tion; the  Education  Question;  all  these  agitations  from 
material  to  spiritual,  individual  to  social,  are  beginning  to 
discover  themselves  related  at  a  common  point.  That 
point  is  where  social  environment  touches  the  individual. 
The  unresting  genius  of  discovery  and  invention  is  enabling 
man  to  revolutionise  his  physical  environment  and  make 
him  every  year  the  master  of  another  force  that  the  year 
before  was  his  master.  The  same  genius  of  creation  is 
stirring  now  to  revolutionise  the  social  environment.  Man 
has  always  been  modifying  in  this  way  his  physical  and 
social  environment.  What  is  new  in  our  day  is  that  the 
consciousness  of  this  power  over  society  has  almost  as  by  a 
flash  of  public  intuition  become  general.  In  the  masses 
stirs  a  new-born  creative  social  consciousness  with  its 
message  that  all  the  reforms  are  one  reform,  and  that  that 
reform  is  the  self-creation  of  a  better  individual  by  putting 
him  to  work  as  his  own  God  at  the  creation  of  a  better 
society. 

J    Yellow  peril.    A  socialistic  China  would 

stay  at  home,  where  every  one  prefers  to  stay;  a  capi- 
talistic China  will  be  the  ruin  of  all  the  working  men  of 
the  European  and  American  world.  Ditto  Filipinos  and 
Negroes.  If  the  people,  the  mass  of  the  people,  want  to  save 
themselves  from  the  policy  of  the  capitalist,  who  will  both 
compel,  provoke,  and  invite  the  Asiatics  to  swarm  .  .  . 

1  Illegible. 


"  Why  I  Join  the  Socialists  "         277 

over  the  west,  they  must  make  their  government  socialistic ; 
to  the  end  (i)  that  it  may  refrain  from  that  destruction  of 
Asiatic  industries  which  English  capitalism  has  accom- 
plished in  India  and  which  will  make  both  India  and  China 
hives  for  the  inmates  to  swarm  away  from,  as  English 
policy  has  done  in  Ireland,  undoubtedly  to  the  reducing  of 
wages]  in  England  and  the  United  States.  (2)  That  the 
American  people  and  others  may  carry  in  time  that  politi- 
cal, agricultural,  industrial,  and  other  emancipation  to  the 
Asiatic  masses  which  will  enable  them  and  incline  them  to 
stay  at  home. 

Socialism  is  more  needed  to  prevent  the  destruction  of 
western  wealth  by  eastern  poverty,  than  for  any  other  single 
reason.  Under  socialism  China  can  support  ten  times  its 
present  population.  Our  capitalistic  regime  industrially 
threatens  the  structure  of  Asiatic  society  at  its  very  roots 
(see  Dutt) ;  politically  its  militarism  teaches  these  peaceful 
peoples  (Kropotkin)  the  use  of  the  weapons  which  they  know 
the  conquered  can  later  use  to  conquer.  A  yellow  Manchu 
behind  a  Gatling  is  as  good  as  the  bravest  white  man  of 
Kentucky.  No  nation  ever  emigrated  except  under  eco- 
nomic pressure.  We  are  fools  to  allow  a  capitalistic  manage- 
ment of  our  government,  industry,  and  society  to  create  by 
wars,  campaigns  for  foreign  markets,  tariffs,  importation  of 
contract  labour,  etc.,  an  economic  pressure  which  will 
bring  a  destructive  exodus  of  Asiatics  upon  ourselves. 
From  a  socialistic  Ireland,  with  evictions  of  the  landlords, 
and  with  a  co-operative  public  ownership  of  railroads, 
water-powers,  forests,  mines,  credit,  and  any  monopolies 
that  might  arise  there  never  would  have  been  any  emigra- 
tion— except  of  landlords,  usurers,  and  millionaires,  the 
only  hemorrhage  by  which  no  blood  is  lost.  From  France 
whose  French  Revolution  gave  its  people  the  nearest 
approach  to  social  and  other  equality  to  be  found  in  Europe, 
there  has  come  no  emigration  to  disturb  the  economic 
balance  of  America.  The  Germans,  the  Jews,  the  Irish, 
the  Asiatics,  would  all  rather  stay  at  home  than  emigrate. 


278  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

Home  is  sweet  to  all.  Socialism  will  arrest  the  currents  of 
the  last  thousand  years.  Where  land  and  opportunity  are 
open  to  all,  where  monopoly  is  possible  to  none,  where 
individuality  is  the  divine  right  of  all,  and  where  society  is  a 
free  exchange  of  all  the  fruits  of  earth  and  human  faculty, 
it  is  the  oldest  countries,  not  the  newest,  which  will  be  the 
most  inviting.  It  will  be  where  the  largest  numbers  of 
brothers  are  to  give  and  make  that  there  will  be  the  surest 
and  most  wealth  for  all. 

Large  industries — Almost  all  our  social  questions,  from 
the  slums  to  imperialism  and  the  yellow  peril,  will  be  seen 
upon  analysis  to  have  their  economic  root  in  the  machinery 
question — in  the  fact  that  the  new  civilisation  of  steam, 
etc.,  has  passed  under  capitalistic  control.  Back  of  that 
may  stretch  another  root.  Why  did  the  inventions  of 
Arkwright,  Watts,  etc.,  become  the  property  of  a  few 
except  that  there  was  no  social  ideal  and  no  social  organisa- 
tion to  prevent?  Or  rather,  because  the  guild  system  of 
ideals  and  organisation,  as  well  as  colleges,  church,  etc., 
had  become  restrictive,  possessory,  monopolistic,  and  forced 
the  new  growth  of  science  (also  religion,  knowledge)  into 
channels  outside  of  itself.  All  signs  predict  now  a  new 
renaissance — and  like  its  predecessors,  it  will  find  its  birth- 
manger  outside  the  established  and  vested. 

The  effect  which  was  produced  upon  the  industries  of  the 
world  by  the  new  power,  and  the  new  property  which  has 
grown  out  of  it,  constituted  a  distinct  era  in  history.  Even 
more  distinct  is  the  new  era  now  about  to  be  introduced  in 
society  by  the  inventions  of  new  institutions  to  socialise 
this  power  and  property.  The  first  was  an  industrial 
revolution — causing  social  changes  of  the  widest  character 
— the  second  will  be  social,  tho  it  will  also  have  industrial 
results  of  the  first  importance.  "The  industrial  revolu- 
tion" of  the  I  Qth  century  has  for  its  inevitable  result  the 
social  revolution  of  the  2oth  century. 

This  revolution  will  better  the  lot  of  all — worsen  the 
condition  of  none,  except  those  who  fatuously  resist  a 


"•Why  I  Join  the  Socialists  "          279 

change.  The  Southern  slaveholding  oligarchy  thus  resisted 
even  to  violence  a  change  urged  both  by  humanity  and 
science.  They  were  ruined,  not  by  the  abolition  of  slavery, 
which  has  made  every  dollar  in  the  South  ten  dollars,  but 
by  their  resistance  to  it. 

Not  constitutional  monarchy,  by  reforms  of  capitalism, 
but  the  abolition  of  capitalism  and  the  establishment  of  the 
industrial  republic. 

Socialism  is  the  only  way  to  preserve  our  civilisation. 
Large  scale  production  will  be  broken  up  again,  unless  justice 
and  social  organisation  are  thus  introduced.  The  only  way 
to  get  rid  of  the  demand  of  the  proletariat  for  a  voice  and 
a  vote  is  to  abolish  the  proletariat.  But  the  demand  for 
social  control  is  a  larger  one  than  that  of  the  proletariat. 

The  world  has  changed  more  in  war  and  peace,  in  indus- 
try and  commerce,  in  travel  and  home,  in  one  hundred 
years,  than  in  the  previous  thousand.  A  few  have  the 
gains  and  the  power;  the  many  demand  reinstatement. 

But  before  he  had  actually  joined  the  party,  a  crisis 
in  Chicago  swept  him  from  the  consideration  of  gen- 
eral policies  on  to  the  field  of  combat.  Concerning  this 
A.  M.  Simons  writes  to  me: 

I  went  out  to  ...  Winnetka  ...  to  discuss  the  ques- 
tion of  his  joining.  .  .  .  We  went  over  the  whole  subject 
very  thoroughly  and  he  expressed  himself  in  full  sympathy 
with  the  aims  and  objects  of  the  socialist  party  and  declared 
his  intention  to  become  a  member.  He  stated,  however, 
that  he  thought  the  fight  which  was  then  being  conducted 
on  municipal  ownership  in  Chicago  was  so  important  that 
he  ought  to  give  his  immediate  energies  to  it  and  that  he 
felt  he  would  be  handicapped  if  he  were  a  member  of  the 
party.  Therefore  he  stated  that  he  preferred  to  wait  a 
few  months  until,  as  he  thought,  the  hardest  portion  of  the 
Chicago  battle  would  be  over. 


CHAPTER  XXVI 

HIS   LAST   VOLLEY 

T  LOYD'S  faith  was  sure.  He  believed  that  we 
I— t  could  win  the  co-operative  commonwealth.  "It 
is  but  natural  that  those  of  us  who  foresee  this  day 
should  ache  to  have  it  come  in  our  time, "  he  wrote  in 
his  note-book  of  1902.  So  ever  eagerly  he  worked, 
summoning  all  his  strength  to  answer  the  calls  of 
democracy  that  came  from  many  sides.  "You  see  I 
keep  up  my  work, "  he  wrote  to  Moritz  Pinner.  "Pro- 
gress seems  slow,  but  I  never  grow  faint-hearted." 
To  a  socialist  who  asked  him  to  help  settle  a  group  of 
comrades  on  the  land,  he  wrote : 

Every  ounce  of  energy  that  I  can  possibly  produce  is 
being  used  up  daily  as  a  sharpshooter  on  the  firing  line.  .  .  . 
Later  I  may  be  able  to  do  something  in  the  way  of  prac- 
tical field  work. 

He  was  often  bewildered  as  to  which  line  of  service 
to  follow.  The  winter  of  1902-3  had  been  a  great  tax 
on  his  strength.  Owing  to  his  public  duties  in  the 
coal  strike  case  and  his  private  anxieties  over  the  illness 
of  his  wife,  he  had  worked,  journeyed,  worried  to  the 
limit  of  his  powers.  When,  finally,  in  June,  1903,  he 
and  his  family  were  again  united  in  Watch  House, 
surrounded  by  the  quiet  of  meadow  and  sea,  he  thought 

280 


His  Last  Volley  281 

that  at  last  he  would  get  at  his  Swiss  book,  for  the 
study  of  which  he  had  twice  journeyed  to  Europe.  But 
no,  his  city — struggling,  aspiring  Chicago — began 
tugging  at  the  strings.  She  was  facing  a  crisis  in  a 
long  contest,  the  question  of  renewing  the  street  car 
franchises.  The  people  were  arising  to  secure  munici- 
pal ownership  of  these  lines.  Should  he  lay  aside  his 
book  and  enter  the  struggle?  His  philosophy  taught 
that  those  thinkers  are  most  valid  whose  thought  is 
reinforced  by  deed.  His  thinking  on  this  subject 
had  been  done.  Nearly  ten  years  before,  he  had  pro- 
nounced the  private  ownership  of  city  transportation 
"the  most  profitable  and  the  most  ruthless,  the  most 
uneconomic,  the  most  anti-social,  and  the  most  danger- 
ous form  of  modern  monopolies,"  and  its  power  had 
not  retreated.  Against  it  the  Chicago  people  were 
now  moving  with  that  civic  energy  for  which  he  had 
hoped  and  laboured.  To  help  steer  the  movement 
past  the  Scylla  of  the  traction  companies,  and  the 
Charybdis  of  the  compromising  half-reformers,  and 
bring  it  into  immediate  municipal  ownership, — that  was 
the  programme  which  he  prefigured.  There  was  hope  in 
the  outlook,  for  Chicago  had  won  the  right  to  use  the 
advisory  referendum. 

The  crisis  had  its  roots  far  back  in  the  city's  history. 
For  over  a  generation  the  people  had  witnessed  the 
lawlessness  of  the  traction  interests.  In  1865,  when  the 
twenty-five  years'  traction  charter  was  only  six  years 
old,  they  hadlseen  the  "ninety-nine years'  act,"  extend- 
ing the  companies'  franchises  for  ninety-nine  years, 
rushed  through  and  passed  over  Governor  Oglesby's 
veto  despite  their  indignant  protests.  This  act  still 
lived,  Lloyd  said  in  1903,  as  the  central  nerve  of  the 
city's  traction  and  would  do  so  unless  declared  uncon- 


282^  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

stitutional  by  the  courts.  In  1897,  when  certain  ex- 
tensions granted  were  approaching  their  limit,  the 
people  began  to  move  for  municipal  ownership.  A 
serious  omission  in  .the  ninety-nine  years'  act,  whereby 
it  authorised  the  use  of  horse-power  only,  was  then  first 
officially  noted  in  the  Annual  Report  of  the  Illinois 
Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics.  This  discovery  opened 
the  possibility  of  forcing  a  surrender  from  the  com- 
panies. To  meet  this,  the  companies  went  to  the  Leg- 
islature with  the  Humphrey  bills.  These  bills,  besides 
providing  for  "any  other  motive  power,"  menaced 
the  liberty  of  all  Illinois  towns  to  manage  their  own 
streets.  Organised  labour  rose  in  protest.  Lloyd  pre- 
pared for  the  executive  committee  of  the  Chicago 
Federation  of  Labor  an  address  to  the  Legislature 
which  set  forth  the  dangers  threatening  from  these  bills, 
and  epitomised  the  whole  relation  between  the 
people's  rights  and  private  usurpation  in  the  contest  then 
pending. 

In  the  name  of  the  happiness,  the  property,  and  the 
liberty  of  the  people  of  all  classes  of  the  present  and  poster- 
ity [the  appeal  ended],  we  protest  against  the  passage  of 
these  bills  and  beg  you,  our  representatives  at  Springfield, 
not  to  lay  upon  the  living  and  the  unborn  these  two  "dead 
hands,"  of  government  by  syndicates  and  of  monopoly  in 
perpetuity. 

This  address  was  circulated  as  a  pamphlet  by  the 
Federation.  An  energetic  campaign  of  the  Citizens' 
Committee  defeated  the  bills,  but  in  a  few  weeks  the 
companies  went  to  the  Legislature  with  the  Allen  bill 
containing  the  same  features.  When  the  rules  of  both 
Houses  were  violated  to  rush  the  bill  through,  public 
indignation  expressed  itself  in  mass  meetings  where 


His  Last  Volley  283 

thousands  of  conservative  citizens  considered  even 
physical  means  of  staying  the  iniquity.  When  the 
Common  Council  of  Chicago  undertook  to  pass  ordin- 
ances in  favour  of  the  companies  under  the  law,  the 
people  arose  in  grim  determination.  They  went  to  the 
City  Hall  with  ropes,  and  called  out  their  aldermen  one 
by  one.  "This  rope  is  for  you, "  the  aldermen  were  told. 
"Some  of  them  wept,"  said  Lloyd  in  writing  of  this, 
"but  when  they  went  back,  they  voted  for  the  people. " 
When,  therefore,  in  1903  the  companies'  charters  were 
again  to  expire,  the  city  faced  a  clash  between  the 
citizens,  determined  to  own  their  transportation,  and 
the  companies,  equally  firm  in  demanding  a  renewal  of 
their  franchises  estimated  as  worth  $60,000,000.  The 
people  were  equipped  for  victory.  Not  only  were  they 
inspired  by  the  enthusiasm  to  assert  their  sovereign 
right  over  their  highways,  but  they  had  achieved  a 
new  power.  They  no  longer  needed  to  beg  their  re- 
presentatives, for  the  advisory  initiative  and  referendum 
had  been  won!  The  self -emancipation  of  Winnetka 
in  1896  had  been  followed  by  statute  law  in  1901 
when  the  Illinois  Legislature  passed  the  Public  Opinion 
Law,  authorising  a  reference  of  three  questions  to 
popular  vote  when  one  quarter  of  the  voters  of  the 
municipality  demanded  it.  Although  the  result  of 
this  vote  was  not  mandatory,  but  only  advisory,  it 
bore  with  it  to  the  aldermen  a  moral  obligation  to 
obey.  The  people  strengthened  it  by  adding  the 
Winnetka  system  of  pledging  candidates  before  elec- 
tion. By  the  first  use  of  this  initiative  power,  the 
people  petitioned  that  the  question  of  municipal 
ownership  of  street  railways  be  referred  at  the  election 
of  April,  1902.  The  referendum  resulted  in  a  vote  in 
its  favour  of  five  to  one.  They  also  possessed  in  the 


284  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

new  Mueller  law  the  necessary  legislative  sanction  for 
working  out  a  municipal  ownership  programme.  This 
law,  the  winning  of  which  had  again  revealed  to  the 
people  the  lawlessness  of  their  opponents,  empowered 
cities  of  Illinois  to  own  and  operate  street  railways, 
enabled  them  to  condemn  the  property  and  franchises 
of  existing  companies  and  by  the  law  of  eminent  do- 
main to  force  their  surrender  to  the  people  at  a  fair 
price,  and  sanctioned  the  raising  of  the  necessary  funds 
by  the  issuance,  subject  to  the  approval  of  the  voters, 
of  bonds  and  certificates.  The  law  could  become 
operative  only  by  a  popular  vote. 

Thus  were  Chicago's  citizens  pressing  forward  to 
supremacy.  They  had  declared  five  to  one  for  municipal 
ownership  of  the  traction.  Mayor  Harrison  and  a 
majority  of  the  aldermen  stood  pledged  to  obey  the 
people's  will  as  expressed  by  referendum  vote,  and  to 
pass  no  franchise  ordinance  unless  so  endorsed.  The 
next  step  was  to  refer  the  Mueller  law  to  the  people. 
"Could  they  be  brought  into  united  action  for  that 
purpose?"  queried  Lloyd.  He  wrote  to  various  pro- 
gressive leaders,  approaching  each  sympathetically, 
asking  their  views,  setting  forth  the  great  opportunity 
of  uniting  all  radicals  in  practical  work.  To  the  editor 
of  the  Public,  he  wrote: 

The  fact  that  the  traction  ordinance  must  be  submitted 
to  the  people  gives  us  an  opportunity  that  has  not  occurred 
before  in  any  American  municipality — nor  in  any  munici- 
pality. Is  it  not  feasible  to  form  an  opportune — but  not 
opportunist — association  under  some  title  like  Immediate 
Municipal  Traction  League  to  prepare  at  once  to  educate 
the  public  to  reject  any  ordinance  with  a  corporation  snake 
in  its  belly?  From  any  radical  point  of  view  or  truly 
conservative  one,  it  is  absurd  to  allow  the  traction  future  of 


His  Last  Volley  285 

Chicago  to  be  developed  into  the  hotch  potch  that  private 
interest  will  make  it.  The  tunnels,  L  lines,  surface  roads, 
that  Chicago  needs — the  whole  system — should  be  and  can 
be  developed  only  under  the  auspices  of  the  whole  municipal 
authority  and  self  interest  of  the  public.  My  letter  in 
the  Tribune  will  give  you  something  of  my  position.  I 
have  just  come  East  to  settle  my  family  at  the  seashore. 
But  if  there  were  any  prospect  for  an  opening  of  real  work 
along  this  line  I  would  come  back.  My  argument  before 
the  Massachusetts  Legislature  will  indicate  to  you  my  plans 
to  get  a  great  tactical  advantage  at  the  start — namely,  to 
obtain  immediate  possession  of  all  the  roads  through 
receivership  on  the  ground  that  they  are  grossly  derelict 
in  their  duty — have  in  fact  violated  their  charter  obliga- 
tions. We  can  get  plenty  of  legal  opinions  to  sustain  this 
procedure.  Armies  would  spring  out  of  the  ground  for  us 
if  we  advocated  real  politics  like  this.  .  .  . 

I  would  suggest  that  such  a  work  should  be  "  a  still  hunt " 
at  first,  that  we  should  secure  the  adhesion  of  some  Iron- 
side men — trade-unionists,  socialists,  municipal  reformers, 
single-taxers — in  the  different  parts  of  the  city  to  enlist 
groups,  and  that  we  should  do  a  good  deal  of  the  work  of 
preparing  material,  laying  out  the  plan  of  campaign,  and 
all  that,  before  showing  a  head  or  saying  a  word. 

It  was  borne  in  on  him  more  strongly  every  minute, 
he  wrote  to  Mr.  Salter,  that  more  than  the  traction 
question  was  involved  in  the  matter.  He  endeavoured 
to  enlist  the  socialists  and  wrote  among  others  to  Debs, 
asking  whether  they  could  be  brought  to  interest 
themselves  in  a  question  which  though  immediate 
could  be  made  to  illustrate  their  most  ideal  purposes. 
"  I  would  be  happy  to  help  in  such  a  work, "  said  Lloyd. 
He  wrote  to  Thomas  J.  Morgan: 

The  more  I  think  about  the  traction  situation  the  more 
inviting  it  appears.  This  arises  from  the  fact  that  the 


286  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

administration  is  pledged  to  submit  the  settlement  to  the 
vote  of  the  people.  Here  is  the  greatest  chance  in  the  world 
to  make  the  people  see  what  an  instalment  of  socialism 
would  mean.  It  is  also  an  unrivalled  opening  for  teaching 
them  by  the  realistic  method  what  exploitation  is,  and  how 
it  is  to  be  met.  If  "class-consciousness"  and  the  "war 
of  classes"  are  not  brought  into  the  territory  of  practical 
questions  by  this  traction  struggle,  they  never  will  be.  How 
can  socialism  make  for  itself  a  better  propaganda  than  by 
becoming  the  champion  of  the  real  interests  of  the  people 
in  a  matter  they  know  to  be  of  vital  moment?  No  other 
party  will  do  this,  and  the  socialists  can  at  once  step  into  a 
place  where  two  millions  of  Chicagoans  will  know  that  they 
are  the  only  party  standing  for  the  actual  interests  of  the 
people.  If  the  socialists  will  come  out  for  immediate 
municipal  ownership  with  immediate  possession  through 
an  application  by  the  city  for  a  receivership  of  all  the  lines, 
.  .  .  they  will  submit  the  only  practical  plans  for  harmonis- 
ing, (i)  immediate  improvement  of  the  service,  with  (2) 
ultimate  development  of  the  whole  system,  under,  on,  and 
above  the  streets,  and  beyond  the  present  limits,  in  a 
harmonious  plan.  .  .  . 

I  would  suggest  for  consideration  whether  for  public  and 
party  reasons  it  would  be  better  to  make  this,  at  the  start, 
an  ostentatiously  socialist  movement.  Let  leading  labour 
men,  single-taxers,  socialists,  Hull  House  reformers,  etc.,  be 
enlisted  if  they  are  in  favour  of  the  main  idea.  The 
socialists  will  be  sure  to  become  the  dominant  element,  and 
they  will  get  their  reward  in  a  very  great  enlargement  of 
their  constituency — all  over  the  country. 

What  do  you  think  of  this?  The  socialists  would  stand 
to  win  heavily,  even  if  they  lost  the  fight,  as  I  suppose  they 
would.  And  yet  I  am  not  sure.  I  think  a  negative  vote 
might  be  got.  .  .  . 

To  him  the  Socialist  party  seemed  the  people's 
natural  champion  in  this  crisis.  "Certainly  it  has  no 


His  Last  Volley  287 

other,"  he  said.  But  he  encountered  opposition  from 
some  of  the  party  leaders,  the  extremists  at  that  time 
dominating. 

The  quicker  we  reach  our  turning  point  [he  said],  the 
easier  will  be  our  victory.  If  we  wait,  as  the  extremists 
would  do,  until  we  are  all  made  worms  before  we  turn  we 
are  quite  as  likely  to  be  trod  out  of  existence  as  given  a 
chance  to  turn.  What  do  you  think  of  this? 

To  a  socialist  who  said  "ten  cents  a  day  is  all  that 
the  working  man  could  possibly  hope  to  gain  by  any 
solution  of  the  traction  question,"  he  took  special 
pains  to  reply: 

I  read  your  letter  with  the  greatest  interest.  Let  me 
state  in  detail  why  I  regard  the  traction  question  as  one  of 
vital  interest  to  the  working  men,  including  the  brain- 
workers,  and  one  which  affords  a  most  pertinent  and  timely 
issue  for  the  socialists. 

Municipal  ownership  would  mean: 
For  the  street  car  employees; 
Better  wages, 
Shorter  hours, 

Other  gains,  and  in  so  far  as  they  were  citizens, 
Self-employment.  They  would  continue  wage- 
workers  but  wage-workers  of  the  public  of  which  they  are  a 
sovereign  part. 

For  other  employees  a  daily  exhibit  of  this  difference 
between  public  and  private  employment. 
For  the  public; 

1.  Lower  fares, 

2.  Better  service, 

3.  The  latest  improvements, 

4.  Inclusion  of  public  health,  decency,  dis- 
tribution of  population  as  elements  to  be  considered  in  the 
development  of  the  street  car  lines. 


288  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

5.  Removal  of  the  corrupting  influence  of 
the  street  car  millionaires  in  press,  politics,  pulpit,  society, 
the  clubs,  the  Common  Council,  etc. 

6.  Cutting  out  a  link,  and  a  most  important 
one,  in  the  chain  of  the  private  profit-seeking  monopolies  of 
public  utilities,  making  the  next  step,  as  gas,  that  much 
easier. 

7.  Educating  the  public  in  the  public  owner- 
ship and  operation  of  the  "means  of  production,  distribu- 
tion, and  exchange,"  and  giving  them  confidence  to  proceed 
to  other  socialisations  as  light,  land,  houses,  docks,  manu- 
facture of  articles  used  by  the  city,  and  from  that  to  manu- 
facture of  articles  used  by  the  citizens. 

8.  Enabling  land  values  to  be  (i)  modified 
as  by  enlargements  of  the  loops,  by  extension  into  the 
country,  by  one  city  one  fare  rates;  (2)  socialised  as  by 
municipal  experiments,  like  those  in  London  and  elsewhere  in 
buying  land,  building  houses, — another  form  of  the  "owner- 
ship and  operation  of  the  means  of  production,  distribution, 
and  exchange." 

9.  Bringing   electric   lighting    and    heating 
within  practical  reach,  since  the  power  plants  could  also 
furnish  light  and  heat. 

If  socialism,  unlike  anything  else  ever  heard  of,  can  be 
got  without  a  beginning,  all  this,  of  course,  is  irrelevant  and 
impractical.  But  if  we  are  to  persuade  and  educate  the 
people  into  the  ownership  and  operation  of  the  means  of 
production,  distribution,  and  exchange,  what  better  place, 
and  time,  and  industry  could  be  presented  than  by  this 
opportunity  to  agitate  for  the  transfer  to  the  public  of  that 
necessary  of  life — the  transportation  by  which  alone  the 
2,000,000  Chicago  people  are  Chicago?  Here  is  a  move- 
ment in  which  every  step  towards  socialisation  is  made  easy 
for  us.  The  industry  presents  in  an  aggravated  form  every 
evil  of  which  the  socialists  complain  in  the  modern  situation, 
exploitation,  corruption,  monopoly.  Every  citizen  is  in 
touch  with  the  evil,  and  by  tens  of  thousands  they  can  be 


His  Last  Volley  289 

taught  socialist  doctrine  and  led  to  co-operate  in  socialist 
work.  The  saving  of  fares  would  be  the  smallest  item  in 
the  list  of  benefits,  but  still  a  saving  of  $12  to  $24  a  year  by 
every  man,  woman,  and  working  child  who  uses  the  cars 
regularly  is  something,  is  it  not?  Our  total  federal  tax  is 
only  $75  per  capita.  And  the  administration  is  pledged  to 
submit  the  matter  to  popular  vote.  Here  is  our  unique 
opportunity.  Usually  we  are  helpless,  this  time  we  can 
act. 

The  audiences  that  will  not  listen  to  discussions  of  such 
matters  as  this  of  traction,  but  demand  "straight  social- 
ism," seem  to  me  like  the  churches  of  the  rich  who  will 
permit  their  preachers  to  give  them  only  the  "simple 
gospel. " 

If  traction  is  not  a  good  place  to  begin  the  agitation  for 
the  realisation  of  "straight  socialism,"  where  is  there  one? 

I  see  that  the  representatives  of  the  Social  Democratic 
Federation  are  members  of  the  Glasgow  Workers  Municipal 
Election  Committee  which  has  in  charge  the  political  side 
of  the  progressive  socialisation  of  Glasgow.  Are  these 
members  of  the  Social  Democratic  Federation  not  "straight 
socialists"? 

I  would  have  answered  your  letter  sooner,  but  for  an 
absence,  and  shall  hope  to  hear  from  you  at  your  first 
convenience,  as  to  whether  you  think  the  Socialist  party  in 
Chicago  is  likely  to  take  any  part  in  this  question. 

This  controversy  apparently  led  him  to  turn  an 
inward  eye  upon  the  articles  of  his  faith,  for  he  wrote: 

I  am  gradually  distilling  a  comprehension  of  my  true 
classification  as  a  political  personality.  I  am  an  opportun- 
ist-revisionist-revolutionary socialist.  How  is  that? 

While  he  was  considering  whether  his  duty  lay  in 
entering  the  struggle,  he  received  a  call  from  Chicago. 
At  a  meeting  on  June  29  of  delegates  from  labour 

VOL.  II — 19- 


290  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

unions,  Turner  societies,  and  civic  bodies  organising  to 
work  for  municipalisation  of  the  street  car  lines,  it  was 
unanimously  resolved  to  invite  him  to  co-operate  with 
its  committees.  He  proceeded  to  study  the  question 
exhaustively.  The  forces  impelling  him  to  accept 
were  strong.  He  was  eager  to  start  away  at  once  from 
the  grime  and  poverty  of  our  present  cities  to  the 
municipalisations  which  were,  he  said,  "the  first  breath 
of  a  new  spring  of  democracy."  Through  his  utter- 
ances for  years  had  run  his  belief  that  here  was  the  most 
promising  field  for  immediate  effort.  In  the  great 
cities  the  expanding  democracy  was  first  to  manifest 
itself  and  within  these  "clearing-houses  of  thought  and 
liberties"  were  evidently  going  to  be  wrought  in  minia- 
ture the  greater  national  struggles.  The  beautiful 
city  of  the  future  had  long  been  a  vision  in  his  imagina- 
tion. He  often  alluded  to  these  gleaming  municipali- 
ties, noiseless,  clean,  combining  the  stimulus  of  the 
town  and  the  serenity  of  the  country. 

One  has  only  to  take  what  municipal  co-operation  would 
mean  [he  said],  and  develop  it  to  its  full  significance  through 
the  farms  for  the  unemployed,  and  the  homes  for  the  working 
men,  to  see  that  we  have  in  the  city  the  germ  of  the  ideal 
community. 

The  mechanical  means  of  transportation  were,  he 
said,  already  developed  which  would  enable  us  to  make 
our  cities  150  miles  in  diameter  with  no  point  more 
than  one  hour  from  the  centre,  and  to  give  us  what  all 
ought  to  have,  "a  city  that  shall  be  a  garden,  and  a 
country  that  shall  be  a  city. "  Thus  through  the  control 
of  their  traction,  he  saw  the  beginnings  whereby  the 
people's  life  together  might  be  regenerated  in  every  way. 
Following  the  municipalisations  to  their  inner  and 


His  Last  Volley  291 

higher  meaning,  he  saw  that  they  were  the  expressions 
of  social  love,  experiments  in  applied  Christianity, 
translations  of  the  golden  rule  and  of  the  saying: 
"Love  thy  neighbour  as  thyself."  Only  by  such  an 
interpretation  could  they  be  really  understood,  he 
said.  For  years,  here  as  elsewhere,  he  had  combated 
the  statisticians  and  the  political  economists  who  were 
giving  discouraging  figures  of  the  failure  of  municipal 
ownership.  He  refused  to  consider  only  the  account- 
ant's ledger.  He  demanded  that  all  the  figures  be 
put  in,  the  slow  wearing  away  of  the  lives  of  tired  men, 
women,  and  children,  who  must  walk  because  they  can- 
not afford  to  ride.  "What  is  the  political  economy," 
he  asked,  "of  the  death-rate,  the  misery,  and  the 
deterioration  of  the  tenement  districts,  congested 
because  fares,  and  rates  of  speed,  and  numbers  of  cars 
run,  are  determined  by  the  demand  of  stockholders 
for  dividends,  and  a  short-sighted  demand  at  that — 
making  less  for  itself  than  it  might  make?"  Here, 
as  always,  the  human  side  of  the  problem,  unvisited 
by  those  labelled  scientists,  was  to  him  the  real  one. 
Here,  as  always,  was  in  his  thought  the  heroic  and 
patient  struggles  of  the  poor. 

For  these  little  working  girls  [he  said  in  a  Toledo 
lecture]  (I  don't  suppose  that  in  Toledo  you  let  your  little 
girls  work,  but  we  do  in  Chicago,  and  they  do  in  Boston), 
the  difference  between  what  they  have  to  pay  the  traction 
company  there  and  what  they  have  to  pay  in  Toronto  is 
roughly  a  half -month's  wages  in  a  year. 

A  friend  recalling  his  last  visit  to  him  says: 

We  were  conversing  on  the  Chicago  street  car  monopoly 
and  tears  came  into  your  brother's  eyes  and  his  voice 


292  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

trembled  with  emotion,  as  he  spoke  of  the  cruelty  of  taxing 
the  thousands  of  poor  sewing  and  working  girls  double 
what  was  necessary  for  their  rides  to  and  from  their  work 
to  make  a  brutal  Yerkes  more  than  a  millionaire. 

The  most  important  "statistics"  were  to  him  the 
revolt  of  the  people  against  the  intolerable  results  of 
private  administration,  and  that  creative  consciousness 
which  was  revealing  their  new  powers  of  co-operation. 
It  was  by  these  deeper  forces  of  the  people's  aspira- 
tions that  the  question  would  in  the  end,  he  said,  be 
settled. 

These  were  the  vistas  which  lay  beyond  his  city's 
traction  crisis,  making  it  an  irresistible  opportunity. 
He  began  to  see  that  he  must  accept  the  call.  Of  first 
importance  seemed  to  him  that  the  people  thoroughly 
understand  the  situation.  He  found  that  no  full 
survey  existed,  and  set  to  work  at  once  to  write  one. 
He  sent  far  and  wide  for  literature,  even  to  Glasgow. 
"I  gave  him  about  fifty  pounds  of  material,"  said  a 
Chicago  official.  He  began  it  the  last  of  July  and 
through  the  shining  August  days  the  leaves  of  this 
book  were  dropping  upon  his  study  table  at  Sakonnet. 
In  its  words  may  be  seen  the  thoughts  that  were  impel- 
ling him.  He  filled  its  pages  with  encouragement. 
He  did  this  to  counteract  the  many  influences  at  work 
instilling  in  the  people  a  distrust  of  themselves  as  having 
neither  the  ability  nor  the  virtue  for  self-government. 
He  recounted  the  devotion  of  officials  and  committees, 
but  most  remarkable  of  all,  he  said,  had  been  the  coming 
forward  of  the  people  to  play  a  direct  part,  forming  a 
Third  House,  principals  supervising  their  representa- 
tives— "the  legitimate  lobby."  In  this  they  had 
intuitively  comprehended  what  was  being  emphasised, 
by  the  latest  authorities  on  social  science,  that  the 


His  Last  Volley  293 

vast  affairs  of  modern  government  cannot  be  managed 
by  representatives  alone,  that  there  must  be  auxiliary 
organisations  of  the  people  to  help  prepare  and  execute 
the  laws.  Here  again  he  found  the  people  ahead  of 
their  professional  guides,  their  officials  and  newspapers. 
Chicago's  notable  record  gave  it  the  leadership  among 
American  municipalities  and  did  not  justify  the  expecta- 
tion of  the  traction  interests  that  the  people  were  going 
to  be  betrayed  into  any  half  reform.  Moreover,  in  no 
other  great  city  had  the  people  been  so  equipped  to  know 
the  whole  history  and  abuses  of  their  transportation. 

Thus  while  it  faced  a  contest  with  the  worst  traction 
situation  in  the  world,  morally  and  mechanically,  Lloyd 
said  that  it  did  so  with  unparalleled  powers.  Great 
would  be  the  import  of  its  failure  or  success;  the  million- 
aires who  were  in  possession  of  its  streets  were  a  com- 
bination of  Chicago,  Philadelphia,  New  York,  and  Boston 
men  who  were  bringing  into  one  control  all  the  public 
utilities  of  all  the  great  cities.  They  had  been  accurately 
described  by  one  who  called  them  "desperate  men  who 
make  a  business  of  playing  for  big  game."  It  was 
necessary,  Lloyd  said,  that  the  criminalities  of  the 
situation  be  frankly  dealt  with.  In  its  encounter  with 
these  corporations  Chicago  was  to  be  the  champion 
of  more  than  her  own  interests.  Upon  her  would  rest 
the  fate  of  democracy  in  our  country,  "which  is  the 
hope  of  the  democracy  of  the  world."  What  was 
happening  in  Chicago  was  also  transpiring  in  other 
large  towns  everywhere.  It  was,  in  fact,  a  world 
struggle  between  the  trusts  and  the  towns,  of  which 
London  and  Chicago  were  the  storm  centres.  It  was 
not  only  the  same  kind  of  power  which  was  trying  to 
smother  the  rising  spirit  of  municipal  democracy  in 
England  and  America,  but  it  was  the  power  of  the  same 


294  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

men — a  group  of  American  capitalists,  many  of  them 
closely  identified  with  Standard  Oil  interests,  who  were 
receiving  as  allies  some  men  of  high  position  in  English 
affairs.  Therefore  he  said  that  those  who  thought 
Chicago's  crisis  a  simple  matter  would  better  wake 
up.  When  it  was  fully  understood,  it  involved  all  of 
modern  liberty. 

The  city  had  before  it  he  said  "the  fight  of  its  life 
for  its  life, "  and  the  united  forces  of  the  people  had 
called  for  his  help.  He  loved  Chicago.  For  many  years 
he  had  looked  back  wistfully  to  New  York,  the  arena 
of  his  youth,  with  a  feeling  which  he  never  lost,  but 
Chicago  had  now  become  his  city.  He  was  wholly  bound 
to  its  hopes  and  struggles,  proud  of  its  high  degree  of 
civic  intelligence,  elated  by  its  brilliant  prospects. 

Now  we  are  to  see  whether  there  is  such  a  thing  as  the 
people  of  Chicago,  and  whether  it  is  a  people  fit  to  be  free, 
and  fit  to  lead  others  to  be  free.  ...  If  the  city  is  to  be 
saved,  ...  it  must  save  itself.  ...  If  the  people  are  of 
the  kind  that  can  be  fooled,  betrayed,  corrupted,  they  will 
find  foolers  and  betrayers.  If  they  want  to  do  right,  they 
will  find  leaders  of  righteousness. 

In  voting  five  to  one  for  municipal  ownership,  they 
had  declared  their  purpose.  "This  is  a  trumpet  call 
for  leaders  who  will  lead. "  As  soon  as  he  decided  that 
he  would  enter  the  struggle,  he  wrote  to  heads  of  pro- 
gressive movements,  municipal  and  national,  to  enlist 
their  co-operation.  He  wrote  to  the  chairman  of  the 
National  Federation  for  Majority  Rule : 

LITTLE  COMPTON,  R.  I.,  Aug.  i,  1903. 
MY  DEAR  MR.  SHIBLEY: 

I  have  tried  very  resolutely  to  renounce  every  form  of 
activity  but  that  connected  with  one  or  two  books  I  have  in 


His  Last  Volley  295 

hand,  but  the  situation  is  too  much  for  me.  The  most 
important  of  these  books  proposed  to  show  in  full  detail  the 
municipal,  cantonal,  and  national  use  of  direct  legislation  in 
Switzerland.  But  I  think  I  must  leave  my  desk  for  a  while, 
and  join  you  and  the  others  who  are  working  on  the  prac- 
tical application  of  this  method  in  this  country.  Especially 
does  the  call  seem  urgent  to  me  in  Chicago  in  the  traction 
question.  A  line  of  battle  can  be  drawn  up  there  which 
will  be  of  far-reaching  importance.  The  pivotal  point  of 
the  Chicago  situation  is  to  compel  the  fulfilment  of  the 
pre-election  pledges,  and  secure  the  submission  of  the  ques- 
tions, (i)  of  municipal  ownership  under  the  Mueller  law 
and  (2)  of  the  issue  of  certificates  to  pay  for  the  old  and  new 
lines.  The  heart  of  the  traction  future  of  Chicago  lies  in 
these  referendums,  and  the  establishment  of  the  referendum 
habit.  Everything  else  is  easy,  and  all  else  will  follow 
these.  The  unions,  referendum  league,  radical  societies 
are  determined  to  make  the  fight.  It  is  likely  to  be  a 
memorable  struggle.  It  will  be  all  the  monopolies  against 
one  municipality.  I  should  be  very  glad  to  receive  any 
suggestions  that  occur  to  you.  Are  you  to  be  in  Chicago 
soon?  Or,  where  could  you  be  seen? 

To  Professor  Bemis  he  wrote : 

The  trade-unions,  single-taxers,  Turners,  etc.,  of  Chicago, 
have  made  up  their  minds  to  resist  every  scheme  for  renew- 
ing the  franchises  of  our  street  car  lines  even  temporarily. 
They  have  asked  me  to  help  and  I  do  not  see  how  I  can 
decently  refuse.  Their  position,  as  I  understand  it,  is  not 
precisely  immediate  ownership,  but  "nothing  but  municipal 
ownership."  Their  special  fear  is  that  under  cover  of 
extension  ordinances,  new  contracts  may  be  made  with  the 
companies  by  which  the  points  of  vantage  held  under  the 
old  contracts  will  be  lost.  They  will  demand  that  all 
proposed  ordinances  be  submitted  to  popular  vote  which 
will  almost  certainly  defeat  them  and  that,  pending  the 


296  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

ultimate  decision  of  the  question,  the  companies  remain  in 
charge  under  sufferance.  When  the  city  hall  finds  the 
public  resolute  to  have  nothing  but  municipal  ownership, 
the  opinion  is  that  the  officers  will  begin  to  make  a  real 
study  of  the  rights  of  the  people  and  to  use  the  legal  re- 
sources as  the  police  power  for  making  the  companies 
understand  that  the  public  rights  must  be  fully  met. 
Personally,  I  believe,  and  good  lawyers  believe — I  do  not, 
you  will  note,  say  other  good  lawyers — that  every  street 
railroad  and  public  service  company's  charter  could  be 
forfeited  for  mis-user  or  non-user,  or  both.  A  perfectly 
frank  exposition  of  the  law  on  this  subject  would  probably 
help  both  public  opinion  and  corporation  opinion.  Just 
now,  press  and  public  opinion  in  Chicago  are  laughing  at 
the  attitude  of  the  working  men  on  this  question  of  munici- 
pal ownership,  and  even  Sikes  styles  it  "  crazy. "  It  will  be 
my  effort  to  make  it  seem  solid  and  sane.  .  .  .  The  working 
men  will  never  consent  to  renewal. 

He  wrote  to  Walter  L.  Fisher  expressing  a  desire  to 
discuss  the  terms  and  scope  of  the  Mueller  bill,  and 
to  various  traction  specialists  and  lawyers.  He  en- 
deavoured to  stiffen  the  faith  of  progressives  who 
advocated  short-term  franchises  as  more  "feasible" 
and  argued  that  while  the  people  voted  for  municipal 
ownership  they  would  not  make  sacrifices  for  it.  He 
resolved  to  lead  under  no  demands  short  of  the 
radical  programme. 

I  want  to  report  progress  [he  wrote  to  Thomas  J.  Morgan 
on  August  9].  I  am  hard  at  work  digesting  the  traction 
documents.  I  find  them  nearly  as  indigestible  as  Mr. 
Morgan's  (J.  Pierpont — not  Thos.  J.)  securities.  But  I  am 
making  progress.  The  problem  I  find  is  more  complicated 
than  I  thought.  ...  I  think  I  shall  be  in  Chicago  in  about 
a  fortnight.  .  .  . 


His  Last  Volley  297 

To  friends  coming  and  going  through  Watch  House 
Lloyd  gave  the  usual  impression  of  leisure  and  tran- 
quillity. Only  occasionally  in  a  chance  remark  did 
there  escape  hints  of  that  intense  feeling  which  he  was 
writing  each  day  into  his  treatise.  In  these  he  showed 
that  his  spirit  of  resistance  was  aroused  and  that  he 
was  determined  to  go  to  Chicago  to  fight  the  question 
out.  There  was  evidence  of  a  higher  state  of  excitement 
than  ever  before.  He  realised  that  he  was  to  meet 
"the  old  enemy"  now  at  close  quarters  in  a  concrete 
struggle.  He  did  not  conceal  his  opinion  of  the  possi- 
bilities enfolded  in  this  contest.  More  dangerous 
and  more  destructive  than  foreign  invaders,  he  said, 
were  these  foes  of  our  own  household,  who  have 
"surreptitiously,  treasonably,  corruptly,  possessed 
themselves  of  our  property,  our  government,  our 
rights." 

As  often  as  others  they  are  honourable  and  kindly  in  their 
homes, — but  in  their  "business"  they  have  no  virtue  to 
spare.  .  .  .  Their  only  transportation  enthusiasm  is  to 
transport  our  money  into  their  pockets.  .  .  .  They  are  the 
modern  buccaneers  who  rob  at  home.  .  .  .  They  have  no 
honour  an  honest  people  can  negotiate  with.  The  Chicago 
fire  was  a  blessing  compared  to  them,  .  .  .  disloyal  para- 
sites, bent  to  nullify  any  law,  ignore  any  public  opinion, 
and  destroy  any  individual  that  interferes  with  their  privi- 
leges and  monopolies.  .  .  .  These  men  are  what  we  have 
made  them.  But  they  are  what  they  are  and  we  must  get 
rid  of  them.  That  promises  the  greatest  struggle  yet  made 
by  the  American  democracy.  Municipal  ownership  of  the 
street  cars  is  only  the  firing  line.  Behind  the  traction 
monopoly  are  all  the  public  service  monopolies  of  Chicago, 
and  behind  them  all  the  public  service  monopolies  of  the 
United  States  and  beyond. 


298  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

Judge  Grosscup,  who  represented  the  traction  inter- 
ests, had  already  threatened  the  use  in  their  defence  of 
the  Federal  troops  and  all  the  power  behind  them.  On 
the  people's  side  Lloyd  declared  that  complaisance  and 
illusion  were  no  longer  in  place.  None  knew  better 
than  he  the  passions  that  were  smouldering  and  which 
might  at  any  moment  leap  into  flame.  So  fearful  was 
he  of  such  a  catastrophe,  so  eager  not  to  breathe  a 
word  that  might  turn  men's  thoughts  toward  brutal 
force,  that  he  cut  out  of  his  traction  manuscript 
the  use,  merely  as  an  illustration,  of  the  reference  to  a 
warship.  Now  and  then,  perhaps  three  times  altogether, 
he  alluded  to  the  possibility  that  he  might  not  come  out 
of  the  struggle.  "  I  may  never  come  back, "  he  said  with 
a  half  laugh.  "This  may  kill  me."  Towards  the  end 
of  the  month  continued  strain  began  to  tell  upon  his 
now  depleted  strength.  He  became  noticeably  very 
tired,  but  refused  to  rest.  Up  to  the  eve  of  his  departure 
he  was  drafting  the  treatise.  On  the  twenty-sixth  he 
telegraphed  to  the  Committee: 

Finish  first  draft  Saturday,  Chicago  Monday,  doubt 
wisdom  general  meeting  until  private  conference  unless  it 
meets  to  recommend  utilise  Labour  Day  gathering  to  get 
signatures  demand  immediate  submission  Mueller  Bill. 

On  Saturday  evening  I  helped  to  arrange  the 
manuscript  preparatory  to  his  departure,  and  I  was 
much  impressed  by  the  intensity  with  which  my  brother, 
taking  my  arm  and  walking  up  and  down,  over-thanked 
me  for  the  little  service  I  had  rendered.  "You  did  it 
not  only  for  me,"  he  said,  "you  did  it  for  the  cause." 
Very  early  Monday  morning  he  was  ready  to  leave. 
He  went  into  the  room  of  his  mother,  who  was  then 
visiting  at  Watch  House.  He  was  apparently  stirred 


His  Last  Volley  299 

by  deep  emotion.  He  spoke  of  the  future  which  even,  at 
her  age,  still  opened,  and  advised  her  to  be  with  her 
grandchildren  as  much  as  possible,  and  to  take  comfort 
in  them.  He  quoted  the  words  of  one  who  said  that  a 
man's  mother  watches  over  him  lovingly  all  his  life, 
and  when  he  dies  she  is  in  heaven  waiting  for  him. 
"We'll  meet  there,"  she  said,  and  he  answered,  in 
sympathy  with  her  thought,  "Yes,  we  '11  meet  there." 
"Take  care  of  your  health,  Henry,"  she  said,  as  he 
stood  in  the  open  door.  "  I  give  my  life  as  a  sacrifice, " 
he  said — his  last  words  to  her.  The  door  closed  and  he 
was  gone.  "A  soul  lent  to  us  from  Paradise,"  she  said 
afterward. 

We  were  waiting  for  him,  down  at  the  dock,  where  the 
little  steamer  was  loading.  There  was  as  much  ado 
about  starting  as  if  it  had  been  a  great  ocean  flyer. 
"They  know  how  we  like  to  say  good-bye,"  he  said  to 
me,  "they  make  it  as  long  as  possible."  Whereupon, 
as  I,  little  realising  the  depth  of  his  thought,  took  this 
remark  playfully,  he  gave  me  a  long,  sad  look,  such  as 
I  shall  never  forget,  and  then  the  boat  moved  off,  and 
was  soon  speeding  over  the  sea,  bearing  him  away 
forever  from  us  and  from  his  beautiful  Sakonnet  shore. 
Westward  again  as  in  youth,  but  with  what  a  different 
mien;  perhaps  now  as  full  of  real  hope  as  then,  but  a 
quiet  hope  brooding  over  a  far  horizon. 

He  arrived  in  Chicago  September  I,  and  plunged 
with  characteristic  fervour  into  the  work,  becoming 
the  adviser  and  leader  of  the  Chicago  Federation  of 
Labor,  a  union  of  428  labour  organisations.  He  found 
the  movement  in  peril;  a  secret  plot  was  being  hatched, 
which,  if  allowed  to  mature,  would  defer  municipal 
ownership  for  nearly  another  generation.  He  spent 
his  first  week  planning  the  way  out  of  this  dilemma. 


300  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

Chicago  was,  as  he  described  it,  "boiling  hot,"  and 
he  was  weary  and  nervously  exhausted,  but  his  efforts 
did  not  flag. 

"I  am  absolutely  appalled  at  the  responsibility  which 
the  working  men  have  placed  upon  me,"  he  wrote  to 
his  wife  in  Sakonnet.  The  gravity  of  the  crisis  did  not 
lessen  on  a  near  view. 

I  think  our  little  matter  will  kindle  a  great  fire  [he  wrote 
to  his  sister].  .  .  .  The  traction  situation  develops  slowly 
but  ominously.  We  are  up  against  the  money  power  with 
no  such  advantage  of  geographical  and  sectional  delimita- 
tion as  helped  the  antagonists  of  the  slave  power.  ...  I 
have  not  seemed  somehow  to  be  quite  up  to  par  since 
coming  West,  but  Chicago  .  .  .  with  its  ...  dust  and 
noise  is  no  doubt  in  part  responsible. 

Fortunately  there  were  friendly  refuges.  There 
was  the  empty  apartment  at  the  Pickwick,  2001 
Michigan  Avenue,  which  had  been  the  home  of  his 
wife's  mother,  where  he  could  retreat  to  the  room 
associated  for  years  with  his  wife.  There  was  also,  in 
the  quiet  of  Winnetka,  a  happy  shelter  at  the  Half- 
wayside,  the  new  home  of  his  son  William  Bross  and 
his  bride,  opposite  the  Wayside.  There  was  also  the 
open  hearth  and  heart  of  Hull  House.  When  the 
first  tempestuous  days  of  studying  the  wiles  of  the 
enemy  and  helping  to  mobilise  the  forces  of  resistance 
began  to  terminate  in  the  lull  of  a  settled  plan  of 
action,  he  appeared  at  Hull  House. 

September  13,  1903.  .  .  .  Behold  me  now  an  "inmate" 
of  Hull  House.  I  have  been  regularly  taken  in  as  only 
Hull  House  can  do  it,  and  I  can  stay  as  long  as  I  want  to. 
It  has  nuns,  but  it 's  not  a  nunnery,  it  has  monks,  but  it  is  not 


His  Last  Volley  301 

a  monastery.  What  shall  we  call  it?  It 's  a  most  delightful 
place.  I  suspect  it  might  easily  make  good  its  claim  to  be 
the  best  club  in  Chicago.  It 's  a  club  that  can  accomplish 
the  impossible  for  other  clubs — the  free  association  of  men 
and  women  under  the  same  roof.  No  other  club  I  ever  saw 
had  as  bountiful  a  dining-room.  My  bedroom  has  a  south 
and  west  outlook  on  the  only  enclosed  court  of  greenery  I 
know  of  in  Chicago — a  spot  like  many  of  the  nooks  we  find  so 
charming  in  London.  It  has  a  sod  and  shrubs  and  trees, 
every  blade  and  leaf  of  which  Miss  Addams  has  personally 
conducted  in  their  contest  for  survival  with  Chicago  soot 
and  dirt.  .  .  .  Miss  Addams  was  one  of  the  people  whose 
advice  counted  for  most  in  deciding  whether  to  take  hold  of 
this  municipal  question.  When  I  asked  her  what  she 
thought  of  the  effort,  she  said  at  once  so  decisively  that  "it 
ought  to  be  tried"  that  I  made  up  what  little  mind  I  had, 
then  and  there.  .  .  .  The  municipal  ownership  question  I 
find  even  more  important  and  more  critical  than  I  had 
expected.  It  has  already  passed  beyond  the  stage  of  a 
debate  about  street  railways  to  the  question  of  the  existence 
of  any  right  of  self-government  whatever.  I  find  a  well- 
developed  plot  far  advanced  by  the  "Reform"  Common 
Council  to  place  the  city  permanently  under  the  traction 
monopoly — and  that  under  pretence  of  municipal  owner- 
ship. I  have  spent  the  last  ten  days  studying  the  practical 
side  of  the  matter.  Whether  the  people  can  be  aroused 
looks  dubious.  I  asked  the  janitor  of  the  Atheneum  last 
night  if  the  people  he  met  cared  much  about  m.  o.  of  the 
street  cars.  He  said  they  did,  but  "did  not  dare  to  express 
themselves."  "Why  not?"  He  wound  his  fingers  to- 
gether with  a  very  significant  twist,  and  replied,  "Because 
the  great  capitalists  are  all  interlocked.  ..." 

"He  never  seemed  sweeter  or  more  attractive  to  me, " 
said  Mr.  Bowles,  who  saw  Lloyd  in  Chicago  at  this  time. 
Toward  the  middle  of  the  month  his  exhausted  phy- 
sique began  to  break.  He  developed  influenza,  but  the 


302  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

contest  was  now  reaching  a  critical  stage,  and  he  pressed 
on.  By  Saturday  the  nineteenth  he  was  ill  in  bed, 
but  arose  in  the  evening  to  make  a  speech  at  a  meeting 
of  the  Municipal  Ownership  Delegate  Convention.  He 
presented  to  them  his  "Traction  Emergency  Call,"  suc- 
cinctly outlining  the  programme, — the  last  of  the  many 
sets  of  resolutions  which  he  had  all  his  life  been  draft- 
ing for  lovers  of  freedom.  This  was  adopted  and  sub- 
sequently circulated  as  a  leaflet.  The  next  afternoon 
he  wrote  to  his  wife: 

Sept.  20,  1903,  4.30  P.M.,  Sunday. 
/THE  PICKWICK. 

Here  I  am  sitting  by  a  little  fire  Annie  has  made  in  the 
S.  W.  room  in  your  Pickwick.  I  have  slept  almost  con- 
tinuously for  36  hours,  except  that  I  had  to  get  up  last 
night  to  go  to  a  meeting — just  had  to,  no  matter  what  the 
headache  or  the  cold  might  say.  This  morning  I  am  all 
right.  The  headache  has  reached  the  dwindling  point,  and 
the  cold  has  "  set "  in  my  bronchial  region,  and  nothing  now 
remains  but  to  wear  it  out.  Yesterday  while  I  was  lying 
in  bed  an  organ  grinder  [was]  playing  some  of  the  tunes  the 
children  have  made  Watch  House  so  gay  with.  I  lay 
blessing  you  for  the  passionate  and  successful  eagerness  of 
your  home-making.  How  you  have  scattered  happiness 
and  joy  from  your  hands !  We  all  call  you  blessed.  Your 
refuge  here  has  been  my  salvation  in  this  little  pull.  .  .  . 
To-day  I  have  to  go  to  the  Federation  of  Labor  to  speak, 
and  after  that  I  think  I  shall  go  to  the  Halfwayside,  and 
probably  stay  over  Monday  for  a  good  rest.  .  .  . 

That  evening  he  again  left  the  sick-room  to  attend 
the  meeting  of  the  Chicago  Federation  of  Labor,  a 
service  destined  to  be  the  last  of  his  life.  He  sat  on  the 
draughty  stage  enveloped  in  his  overcoat  and  looking 
very  ill,  so  said  Jane  Addams.  He  laid  before  the 


His  Last  Volley  303 

Federation  the  scheme  which  was  imperilling  munici- 
pal ownership  of  the  traction  lines. 

A  scheme  has  already  been  arranged  [he  said],  by  which 
within  the  next  eight  weeks  the  control  of  your  traction 
system  goes  into  the  hands  of  a  syndicate  forever.  The 
terms  of  the  franchise  bill  prepared  by  the  Council's  com- 
mittee are  so  arranged  that  when  twenty  years  are  up  a 
renewal  is  a  practical  necessity.  Read  Judge  Grosscup's 
communication  to  the  receivers  of  the  Union  Traction 
Company  and  you  will  see  that  there  is  no  chance  for 
municipal  ownership. 

Unless  the  citizens  insist  upon  the  rights  given  by  the 
Mueller  bill  to  vote  upon  municipal  ownership  we  shall  see 
unified  control  of  the  traction  system  in  the  hands  of  one 
syndicate.  This  syndicate  is  allied  with  that  controlling 
the  city's  gas,  and  is  already  reaching  out  for  the  water- 
works. This  means  that  we  shall  have  a  unification  of  the 
public  utilities  in  the  grasp  of  a  few  men. 

He  submitted  his  "Traction  Emergency  Call,"1 
with  an  added  resolution,  namely,  that  the  Federation 
urge  its  delegates  and  members  of  their  respective 
unions  to  proceed  in  a  body  Monday  evening,  Septem- 
ber 28,  ±o  call  on  the  Mayor  and  Council  at  their 
regular  meeting  and  present  their  demands.  This 
was  adopted  and  it  was  voted  that  Lloyd  should  head 
the  delegation  and  present  the  demands. 

After  the  meeting  his  co-workers,  seeing  his  condition, 
urged  him  to  drive  home  in  a  carriage  instead  of  in  the 
windy  open  car,  but  he  said  that  he  would  go  in  the 
car  as  the  others  did.  Monday's  rest  at  the  Halfway- 
side  was  not  sufficient,  and  on  Tuesday  Willis  J. 
Abbot,  who  was  in  the  city  helping  with  the  work, 
found  him  ill  at  the  Pickwick  and  insisted  upon  his 

1  See  Appendix. 


304  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

having  a  doctor  and  a  nurse.  On  Wednesday  pneu- 
monia was  diagnosed.  "You  must  get  me  well  by 
to-morrow,"  he  said  to  the  doctor.  "  I  've  got  to  speak 
at  a  meeting  and  I  cannot  disappoint  them."  He 
would  not  allow  word  to  be  sent  to  his  family,  but  on 
Thursday  telegrams  were  sent.  It  was  not  until  Satur- 
day that  his  wife  could  reach  him.  "You  bring  the 
fresh  air  of  Sakonnet  with  you,"  he  said. 

Only  a  few  words  have  come  to  us  from  these  last 
hours  of  torture.  Through  his  delirium  and  his  con- 
scious hours  he  was  talking  of  the  traction  question,  of 
the  contest  in  which  he  longed  to  be  working  again. 
"All  I  had  done  in  my  life  was  leading  up  to  this," 
he  said  bitterly,  "and  it  was  going  through. "  He  spoke 
of  the  fifteen  years  of  work  which  he  had  planned.  A 
friend  brought  him  a  newspaper  clipping  bearing  the 
news  that  the  citizens  of  Toledo  had  invaded  their 
Council  Chamber  with  ropes  and  threatened  the  alder- 
men with  hanging  if  they  passed  a  municipal  franchise 
then  pending.  He  was  startled  by  Lloyd's  exclamation 
of  satisfaction.  "  Good! "  he  said,  turning  painfully  on 
his  bed.  "Good!"  he  said  in  substance,  for  the  exact 
words  cannot  be  recalled;  "the  American  people  will 
fight  when  it  is  required.  Is  n't  it  hard  that  I  should 
be  laid  here  helpless  at  such  a  time  as  this  ? ' '  He  turned 
over  to  his  son  the  manuscript  of  his  traction  treatise 
with  the  request  that  it  be  placed  at  the  disposal  of 
those  who  should  take  his  place.  "It  was  the  last 
two  speeches  that  did  it, "  he  said,  "  but  I  Jd  do  it  again!  " 
No  one  can  enlist  in  a  great  cause  and  not  face  the  possi- 
bility of  giving  it  his  life.  This  consciousness  is  ever 
beside  him.  By  continual  smaller  sacrifices  of  leisure, 
friendship,  money,  he  daily  strengthens  his  purpose  to 
be  ready,  if  necessary,  to  pay  the  last  tribute  of  all. 


His  Last  Volley  305 

But  to  few  comes  the  heroic  summons.  Helpless  on 
a  bed  of  agony,  a  1  that  Lloyd  could  in  his  last  moment 
offer  was  this  testimony  of  an  unlimited  devotion — 
"but  I  'd  do  it  again!"  By  these  words  the  love  of  a 
lifetime  fulfilled  itself.  In  them  breathes  the  spirit 
which  must  inspire  all  the  people,  if  they  are  to  prevail. 
"In  this  readiness  to  die,"  he  had  said  years  before, 
''lies  folded  every  loyalty  of  life." 

All  day  Sunday  was  one  of  agony,  but  bravely 
borne,  with  consideration  for  all.  "He  had  remarka- 
ble courage  and  control  over  himself,"  said  his  doctor, 
"  and  although  he  was  very  sick  almost  from  the  start, 
one  could  easily  see  the  power  in  the  man."  When 
Monday  's^dawn  began  to  break,  Lloyd  said,  "This  can- 
not last  many  minutes  longer,"  and  when  the  light 
shone  full,  about  seven  o'clock,  "This  means  go.  I 
feel  the  ashes  on  my  brow. "  With  the  endearing  name 
of  his  wife  on  his  lips  he  died. 

Chicago  breakfasting  at  that  hour  read  in  the  papers 
of  the  lively  meeting  which  was  expected  that  night — 
for  it  was  September  twenty-eighth — when  the  City 
Council  was  to  resume  its  sittings,  and  "Henry  D. 
Lloyd  and  his  cohorts,"  a  large  delegation  from 
the  Municipal  Ownership  Delegate  Convention,  were 
to  be  there  to  protest  and  demand,  a  procedure  de- 
nounced in  advance  as  an  attempt  to  intimidate  the 
councilmen. 

In  the  evening,  the  gallery  of  the  Council  Chamber 
was  crowded  with  citizens  drawn  out  by  the  call  of  the 
Federation  of  Labor.  They  sat  watching  in  quiet 
dignity  and  sorrow,  acting  upon  the  situation  by  the 
silent  pressure  of  their  presence,  presenting  no  petition, 
making  no  demands,  for  the  man  who  was  to  have 
headed  the  delegation,  and  to  whom  this  matter  had 


VOL.  II. — 2O 


306  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

been  the  supremest  interest,  did  not  come.  He  stirred 
neither  hand  nor  foot,  lay  uncaring,  unconscious. 
Such  is  death.  "Only  death,"  a  friend  said,  "could 
have  conquered  his  brave  soul. " 

In  respect  to  his  memory,  no  word  of  traction  was 
spoken,  but  when  the  Council  had  adjourned,  his  co- 
workers  held  a  meeting  and  put  on  record  a  minute 
telling  of  his  recent  work.  They  spoke  of  his  faith 
that  the  people,  if  they  knew  the  exact  conditions, 
would  demand  but  one  settlement — immediate  muni- 
cipal ownership.  ' '  The  friends  of  municipal  ownership, ' ' 
the  minute  said,  "who  have  been  working  with 
Mr.  Lloyd  in  this  matter  are  forced  to  feel  that  this 
valuable  life  was  sacrificed  in  this  cause — a  veritable 
martyrdom. " 

"Remember  I  am  to  be  buried  where  I  fall,"  he  had 
said  once  or  twice  when  he  mentioned  the  subject, 
and  it  was  also  his  expressed  wish  that  there  be  no 
funeral.  So  only  a  few  friends  came  to  look  upon  him 
where  he  lay  embowered  with  vines  and  flowers  from 
his  beloved  Winnetka,  and  at  his  feet  the  golden-rod 
and  asters  which  we  gathered  for  him  from  the  sweet 
fields  of  Sakonnet.  We  looked  upon  him  who  had  been 
the  eager  boy  sowing  seed,  the  radiant  young  reformer, 
and  now  the  resolute  apostle  of  love  and  justice  laid 
low,  and  marvelled  again  at  death.  And  when  we 
gathered  around  him  for  the  last  minutes  that  even  his 
lifeless  form  might  be  with  us,  his  father,  then  eighty- 
six  years  old,  who  had  come  from  Sakonnet,  read  again 
the  Bible  verses  which  he  had  so  often  read  to  the  boy, 
and  his  beloved  friend,  William  M.  Salter,  spoke  the 
tribute  of  a  close  spiritual  kinship,  and  thus  did  the 
inspiration  of  the  old  and  the  new  religion  meet  above 
him.  "Move  on,  then,  friend,  move  on  through  the 


His  Last  Volley  307 

years  and  be  glad  that  they  are  taking  you,"  said 
Mr.  Salter,  as  we  looked  last  upon  him,  "move  on 
through  life  and  be  not  afraid — yes,  move  on  through 
death,  face  pain,  loss,  contradictions,  sundering  of  all 
earthly  ties;  move  on  through  all,  and  hope  with  the 
hope  of  children  of  a  boundless  universe. " 

It  had  been  his  wish  to  be  cremated,  and  as  his  body 
slowly  descended  Mr.  Salter  read  the  poem: 

"Calmly,  calmly,  lay  him  down, 
He  hath  fought  the  noble  fight; 
He  hath  battled  for  the  right; 
He  hath  won  the  unfading  crown. " 

His  ashes  lie  by  the  Winnetka  church  whose  spire  was 
such  a  feature  from  the  Wayside  windows.  A  boulder 
brought  from  the  grounds  of  Watch  House  marks  the 
spot.  Thus  he  left  us  whirling  on  "in  the  rapids  of  a 
new  era,"  looking  longingly  back  to  him  for  help  and 
guidance.  There  was  little  flourish  of  fame's  banners, 
but  here  and  there  all  over  the  world  statesmen,  lovers 
of  justice,  students,  working  men  and  women,  many 
who  never  saw  him,  felt  a  loneliness  descend  upon 
them,  and  then  a  new  elevation  of  spirit  from  the 
memory  of  his  goodness. 

He  had  not  been  a  conspicuous  figure.  He  had  been 
"entertained  unawares, "  but  upon  his  death  he  seemed 
suddenly  revealed  to  the  country  as  one  of  its  first 
citizens.  His  spirit  began  to  shine  afar.  All  classes 
bore  tribute  to  him  who  had  shown  sympathy  with  all. 
Individuals  and  organisations  and  the  press  honoured 
him  in  words  of  adoration.  The  flag  of  his  village  hung 
at  half-mast,  the  charters  of  the  anthracite  miners 
were  draped  for  thirty  days,  and  the  miners  were  oflfi- 


308  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

cially  adjured  to  read  his  works.  Nowhere  was  he 
more  sincerely  mourned  than  in  New  Zealand,  as 
Premier  Seddon  bore  testimony  in  his  closing  address 
to  Parliament.1 

A  memorial  meeting  was  arranged  by  his  friends 
and  members  of  the  following  organisations:  the 
United  Mine  Workers  of  America,  the  American 
Federation  of  Labor,  the  United  Turner  Societies, 
the  Chicago  Federation  of  Labor,  the  Village  Council 
of  Winnetka,  Typographical  Union  No.  16,  Municipal 
Ownership  Delegate  Convention,  the  Henry  George 
Association,  Hull  House,  and  Chicago  Commons.  To 
this  meeting,  held  in  the  Chicago  Auditorium,  Novem- 
ber twenty-ninth,  and  of  which  the  miners  offered 
to  pay  the  expenses,  thousands  came  to  bear  testi- 
mony of  affection  and  gratitude.  Their  spokesmen 
were  Judge  Edward  F.  Dunne  in  the  chair,  Edwin 
D.  Mead,  Samuel  M.  Jones,  John  Mitchell,  Jane 
Addams,  Clarence  S.  Darrow,  and  Tom  L.  Johnson, 
while  the  German  singing  societies  sang  in  his  honour. 
In  Winnetka  the  Town  Meeting  was  made  a  mem- 
orial service.  Addresses  were  given  by  the  Rev. 
Jenkin  Lloyd  Jones,  whose  pastoral  work  had  begun 
in  that  village  thirty-three  years  before,  Frederick 
Greeley,  friend  and  neighbour,  and  the  Rev.  Quincy 
L.  Dowd,  his  co-worker  in  inspiring  Winnetka's  civic 
ideals. 2 

When  the  Chicago  Council  assembled  at  its  next 
meeting,  there  were  present  again  in  the  gallery  the 
delegation  with  its  petition.  With  them  was  Mrs. 
Lloyd  and  her  eldest  son,  William  Bross  Lloyd. 

1  See  Appendix. 

1  The  proceedings  of  the  memorial  meetings  are  privately  printed  in 
pamphlet  form. 


His  Last  Volley  309 

Judge  William  Prentiss  presented  the  petition  amid 
great  enthusiasm  and  the  Council  ordered  the  drafting 
of  an  ordinance  to  provide  for  the  adoption  of  the 
Mueller  Act.  This  was  a  long  step  forward  toward 
their  goal,  said  the  people  then.  Mrs.  Lloyd's  purpose 
in  being  there  is  best  described  in  a  letter  to  Mr. 
Pinner:  "  I  am  trying  hard  to  live  in  the  only  way  to 
bear  the  sorrow  nobly,  worthily  of  the  great  man  I 
have  lived  with  in  perfect  happiness  for  so  many  years, 
to  work  without  ceasing  for  the  precious  causes  to 
which  he  gave  his  life."  One  of  her  first  acts  was  to 
publish  Lloyd's  treatise,  The  Chicago  Traction  Ques- 
tion, in  pamphlet  form.  There  were  other  plans 
which  it  was  her  hope  to  carry  on.  But  long  since 
broken  in  health  and  with  her  spirit  now  too  shattered, 
she  was  not  able  long  to  follow  this  high  aim,  and 
on  December  29,  1904,  she,  too,  died. 

Very  valiant  was  the  contest  which  the  people 
waged  with  their  traction  enemies.  Lloyd's  spirit  was 
with  them.  To  him  the  inner  meaning  of  sacrifice  was  a 
making  holy.  The  revelation  of  the  great  love  which 
animated  him  still  further  hallowed  the  cause  to  his 
co-workers.  "I  cannot  but  feel,"  wrote  Ida  Tarbell, 
"that  Henry  Lloyd's  tragic  death  gave  an  entirely  new 
trend  to  the  fight  for  municipal  ownership  in  Chicago, 
making  it  a  sacred  cause  to  many  who  until  then  had 
viewed  it  merely  as  an  alternative,  a  weapon,  or  an 
alluring  theory."1  The  Municipal  Ownership  Dele- 
gate Convention  resolved  to  make  the  movement  a 
memorial  to  him.  By  recommendation  of  the  Chicago 
Federation  of  Labor,  thousands  of  copies  of  his  pam- 
phlet were  given  to  union  men  that  they  might  under- 

1  "How  Chicago  is  Finding  Herself,  "A  merican  Magazine,  November, 
1908. 


310  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

stand  the  enormity  of  the  crime  about  to  be  attempted 
against  them  and  their  children's  children.  With  mag- 
nificent spirit  the  citizens  arose  to  save  the  city,  watch- 
ing their  officials  with  unceasing  vigilance,  exercising 
their  sovereign  right  in  the  initiative  and  referendum. 
Defeat,  betrayal,  did  not  exhaust  or  dismay.  Once, 
twice,  six  times,  seeing  the  city's  lines  about  to  be  given 
over  to  the  traction  company,  did  they  by  heroic  effort 
draw  monster  petitions  and  achieve  by  the  requisite 
number  of  signatures  the  referring  of  the  issues  to  the 
vote  of  the  people.  One  petition  reached  300,000  sig- 
natures in  two  weeks,  another  with  its  half-mile  length 
wound  on  a  great  wheel  was  drawn  by  four  white  horses 
and  borne  with  triumphal  music  to  the  City  Hall,  where 
it  halted  to  speak  with  eloquent  warning  to  Mayor  and 
Council.  The  currents  of  protest  and  sovereignty 
revealed  themselves  to  be  strong  in  the  citizens  as, 
swept  from  victory  to  betrayal,  from  hope  to  despon- 
dency, they  rose  again  and  pressed  forward.  The 
earnest  woman,  Margaret  Haley,  who  after  an  impas- 
sioned plea  to  the  aldermen,  sat  down  in  tears,  might 
well  be  said  to  typify  Chicago.  For  in  the  last  act  of 
the  tragedy,  the  people  were  outwitted.  Long  ordi- 
nances, "lawyers'  masterpieces,"  full  of  provisos  and 
exceptions,  impossible  to  understand,  cunningly  devised 
to  appear  favourable  to  municipal  ownership,  were 
submitted  to  popular  vote.  The  people,  confused, 
passed  them  by  a  small  majority  of  33,000.  Thus  did 
Chicago,  granting  more  to  the  companies  than  had 
been  dreamed  of  in  the  beginning,  bind  herself  to 
virtually  perpetual  monopoly  and  hand  over  her 
traction  question  worse  confounded  to  baffle  coming 
generations.  What  Lloyd  feared  in  his  prophetic 
fervour  came  to  pass.  But  his  words  lead  us  onward: 


His  Last  Volley  311 

We  had  rather  fail  seventy  times  seven  with  the  people 
and  succeed  at  the  last,  than  succeed  without  the  people 
at  the  first  attempt.  What  is  done  by  the  people  lasts 
forever. T 

1  Note-book,  1903. 


CHAPTER  XXVII 
"FAREWELL  AND  HAIL!" 

SUCH  a  life  is  immortal  in  time.  Not  lost,  but  eternalised 
by  the  change  called  death,  and  written  for  ever  in  the 
pages  imperishable.  Its  inspiration  will  continue  in  ever 
increasing  power.  Loving  hearts  in  all  the  lands  where  he 
has  journeyed  will  run  forward  to  lift  up  the  banner  dropped 
from  lifeless  hands;  and  others  again,  till  it  waves  over  a 
world  redeemed  from  the  curse  of  selfishness  and  glorified 
in  the  light  and  life  of  love.  O  blessed  friend  and  brother — 
friend  of  man,  friend  of  God ;  farewell  and  hail ! x 

The  life  we  have  surveyed  shows  a  remarkably 
consistent  progression.  The  atmosphere  of  the  times 
was,  as  he  said,  dark,  distorted,  confusing,  wherein 
men  were  vainly  trying  to  argue  out  a  sunlit,  harmon- 
ious scheme  of  truth.  His  clear-eyed  genius  early 
found  the  central  truth  of  the  needs  of  the  time — the 
extension  of  brotherhood  to  industry — and  with  it 
squared  all  his  deeds  and  aspirations.  In  him  was 
illustrated  Emerson's  saying  that  "the  first  measure 
of  a  mind  is  its  centrality,  its  capacity  for  truth  and  its 
adhesion  to  it." 

"Eras  show  their  last  stages  by  producing  men  who 
sum  up  individually  the  characteristics  of  the  mass," 

'Lines  written  by  Dr.  H.  W.  Thomas,  independent  preacher  of 
Chicago,  for  the  memorial  meeting  to  Mr.  Lloyd. 

3" 


"  Farewell  and  Hail!  "  313 

Lloyd  said  of  the  trust  magnates.  Even  so  do  coming 
eras  send  forth  their  heralds,  incarnations  of  the  new 
nobility  which  is  to  become  the  common  heritage.  Of 
such  was  Lloyd,  myriad-hearted,  holding  in  his  imagin- 
ation the  sufferings  of  nations,  giving  his  life  to  save. 
In  him  was  justified  Emerson's  saying:  "Follow  the 
great  men  and  you  shall  see  what  the  world  has  at  heart 
in  these  ages."  He  was  indeed  a  representative  man. 
In  his  soul  as  in  still  waters,  the  era  was  reflected. 
Its  struggles  and  aspirations  played  upon  him,  its 
good  currents  ran  through  his  personality.  He  was 
alive  with  its  resistance  to  tyranny,  instinct  with  its 
new  human  brotherliness,  lighted  by  its  divine  aspira- 
tion looking  even  to  the  millennial  dawn.  His  life  was 
contemporaneous  with  the  rapid  rise  of  the  two  oppos- 
ing phalanxes  in  the  modern  crisis.  In  his  childhood 
millionaires  were  almost  unknown  in  America :  when  he 
died  one  hundredth  of  the  population,  according  to  the 
statistics,  owned  nine  tenths  of  the  nation's  wealth. 
The  evils  confronting  the  crusader  were  more  complex, 
more  obscured  than  ever  before  in  history.  He  had 
the  clear  insight,  the  persistent  conscience  needed. 
His  was  the  vision  of  the  pure  in  heart.  He  never  lost 
his  way  to  the  great  truth,  was  never  befogged  in  his 
own  statistics.  He  himself  was,  as  he  said  of  Wesley, 
"a  religious  genius  and  could  detect  that  sin  of 
sins, — hatred  of  brothers — in  any  new  disguise  of 
greed. " 

His  personality  was  happily  so  proper  an  expression 
of  his  spirit  that  men  and  women  loved  him  at  first 
sight.  Some  who  saw  him  only  once  spoke  of  him  ever 
after  with  a  kind  of  exaltation.  Many  loved  him  who 
never  saw  him,  as  one  who  said,  "I  never  had  the 
unspeakable  joy  of  looking  upon  his  face. " 


3 14  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

The  first  time  I  saw  and  heard  him  was  at  a  Ministers' 
Institute  in  Concord,  Massachusetts  [wrote  one].  I 
shall  never  forget  his  face — so  full  of  light,  that  beautiful 
warm  light  one  finds  it  so  pleasant  to  look  at, — "kindly 
light" — that  is  what  I  mean,  shining  always  like  a  constant 
sun,  warming  one  through  and  through  and  compelling 
trustful,  happy,  hopeful  things  to  grow  within  one  in  very 
dark  and  cheerless  places.  Others  must  have  said  these 
very  things  about  your  brother;  but  you  must  also  let  me 
say  them.  Such  faces  as  his  are  only  too  rare  in  this  care- 
burdened  time,  and  when  we  see  one  we  like  to  keep  look- 
ing at  it  just  for  the  pure  pleasure  of  it.  Most  men  are 
looking  down  .  .  .  hoping  to  find  something,  but  here 
was  a  man  who  must  have  found  years  ago  the  thing  most 
worth  finding — the  gleam  of  it  shone  through  his  face,  as 
any  one  might  see  even  from  a  distance,  not  knowing  him 
personally,  as  was  the  case  with  me. 


He  was  continually  described  as  an  aristocrat  in 
appearance,  though,  as  one  happily  put  it,  "the  kind 
of  aristocrat  which  democracy  breeds."  He  had  what 
Emerson  calls  "the  fine  garment  of  behaviour. "  "  We 
think  of  that  knightly  figure  and  of  that  patrician 
manner  of  his  as  of  some  Sir  Philip  Sidney,"  said  a 
friend.  There  was  something  about  the  way  in  which 
his  noble  head  with  its  mane  of  whitened  hair  was 
poised  on  his  slender  youthful  body  which  suggested 
the  majesty  of  the  man.  "He  seemed  like  a  leader  in 
appearance,"  said  William  Dean  Howells.  He  bore 
himself  with  the  easy  confidence  of  a  man  of  the  world 
who  has  known  life's  opportunities  and  his  very  pres- 
ence in  parlours,  clubs,  lecture  rooms,  even  when 
championing  an  unwelcome  cause,  was  an  instanta- 
neous argument  for  his  side.  Even  bitter  opponents 
felt  his  lovable  nature,  revered  his  bravery  and  sincerity. 


"  Farewell  and  Hail!  "  315 

Indeed  he  used  to  say  that  it  was  a  great  mistake  to 
meet  your  enemies  because  you  always  ended  by  loving 
them.  The  tribute  of  a  friend  is  typical : 

Differing  from  him  in  my  opinion  as  to  his  methods  of 
trying  to  help  mankind,  I  loved,  admired,  and  respected  him 
always;  and  when  I  saw  his  good  and  beautiful  face,  felt 
that  no  man  was  better,  no  man  gentler,  and  no  man  had 
warmer  sympathies;  and  turned  to  my  small  tasks  with 
greater  hope  and  strength  and  courage. 

His  character  held  the  brilliancy  of  a  race  which  had 
been  flowering  in  the  soil  of  New  World  opportunities. 
He  had  the  extra  touch  of  energy  with  which  Europeans 
credit  the  Americans ;  the  proud  scope  of  his  plans,  the 
freedom  of  his  outlook,  the  fascinating  contrast  of  his 
qualities,  all  might  be  thus  traced.  If  one  wanted  to 
wander  into  the  uncertain  realm  of  race  characteristics, 
one  might  follow  these  to  their  springs  of  origin  and  say 
that  he  had  the  French  style  with  its  wit  and  mastery 
of  epigram,  the  profound  religious  bias  of  the  American- 
born  Dutch,  Saxon  sense,  Welsh  fire  and  imagination, 
the  Frieslander's  love  of  liberty,  the  Walloon  talent 
hesitating  under  self -distrust,  above  all  the  passion  for 
freedom  which  flowed  into  his  nature  from  all  sides. 

Perhaps  his  most  determining  mental  quality  was  his 
imagination,  and  his  distinguishing  achievement  that  he 
brought  it  into  a  walk  of  life  where  men  of  imagination 
seldom  linger.  With  it  he  illumined  "the  dismal 
science"  and  humanised  the  statistics  of  business. 
It  gave  him  that  sympathy  with  an  enemy's  point  of 
view  whereby  he  could  gently  lead  him  truth  ward. 
It  made  him  see  others'  opportunities,  so  that  he  was 
continually  prodding  even  casual  acquaintances  to 
increased  endeavour.  "He  urged  me  to  study  sten- 


316  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

ography, "  said  the  daughter  of  an  English  knight. 
"He  made  me  a  golden  rule  man,"  said  Samuel  Jones. 
It  would  be  impossible  to  gather  the  cloud  of  witnesses 
to  this  stimulus,  the  nameless  service  of  all  beneficent 
careers.  How  often  he  met  disappointment,  spurring 
or  warning  in  vain,  doomed  to  watch  the  slow  realisation 
of  what  he  would  have  prevented !  This  was  peculiarly 
the  emphasis  fate  put  upon  his  career  and  that  helped 
to  weary  and  discourage  him.  "I  sometimes  think  I 
will  never  advise  any  one  again, "  I  heard  him  say. 

It  was  this  imagination  which  helped  him  to  attain 
that  balance  so  rare  in  one  who  has  swept  from  old 
moorings  into  the  open  sea  of  extreme  radicalism. 
Internationalism  did  not  make  him  less  an  American. 
In  personal  conduct  he  kept  a  nice  balance  between 
egoism  and  altruism,  between  the  claims  of  the  body 
and  the  soul.  In  his  passion  for  humanity,  he  never 
lost  the  tender  solicitude  for  his  own  circle.  His  charm- 
ing friend  Major  Huntington  wrote  to  him:  "I  con- 
gratulate myself  on  having  found  a  philanthropist  whose 
wide  embrace  is  not  too  narrow  to  include  his  friends. ' ' 
Some  reformers  said  ''Work  for  certain  men,"  others 
said  "Work  for  principles,"  he  said  "Work  for  both"; 
some  preached  to  regenerate  individuals,  others  insti- 
tutions, he  said  both.  He  saw  not  only  capital  and 
labour  in  our  present  strife,  but  the  poor  people  in 
between,  "the  folks  who  are  only  folks." 

Ever  weighing,  balancing,  he  was  long  in  reaching  a 
decision,  consulting  men  on  all  sides,  for  to  stern  inde- 
pendence of  thought  he  united  a  sensitive  impressibility. 
When  he  was  chaffed  for  being  undecided  he  declared 
that  he  was  not  so.  "I  take  a  long  time  to  make  up 
my  mind,"  he  said,  "but  when  I  have  once  decided  I 
do  not  waver."  One  reason  for  this  hesitancy  was  his 


"  Farewell  and  Hail!"  317 

extreme  caution.  He  continually  prefigured  dangers, 
and  ran  no  risks.  Thus  he  was  often  filled  with  what 
seemed  to  those  less  parallel  with  events  an  exaggerated 
solicitude.  Yet  he  moved  with  gentleness  and  com- 
posure. With  sympathy  and  tact  realising  that  others 
were  not  specialists  and  did  not  see,  knowing  that  dis- 
couragement was  paralysing,  he  controlled  the  conster- 
nation which  at  times  overwhelmed  his  spirit,  and  often 
clothed  with  grace,  even  playfulness,  his  most  sinister 
forebodings.  The  magnitude  of  the  people's  peril, 
the  large  measure  of  his  feeling  of  responsibility  toward 
it,  overwhelmed  him  with  work.  Yet  no  trait  was  more 
noticeable  than  his  apparent  leisure,  as  if  he  had  at  his 
command  the  hours  of  the  gods.  As  a  rule  he  gave  the 
impression  of  a  man  sustained  by  a  heavenly  calm. 
The  faster  the  events  converged  to  a  crisis,  the  more 
serene  became  his  outlook,  for  that  same  clear  vision 
which  saw  the  impending  struggle  revealed  to  him  the 
coming  peace. 

This  serenity  and  control  had  not  been  easily  won, 
for  he  knew  how  to  hate.  Rarely  and  to  the  surprise 
even  of  intimate  associates  there  burst  forth  a  volcanic 
wrath.  In  writing  of  his  Christliness  of  character,  a 
friend  said : 

It  was  a  Christliness  manly  and  chivalrous  in  its  consid- 
eration and  tenderness,  with  an  instinct  for  searching  out 
where  and  how  and  when  a  service  could  be  most  delicately 
and  helpfully  rendered  and  rendered  without  any  thought 
of  return ;  and  at  the  same  time,  it  was  a  Christliness  that 
could  flame  into  a  wrath  that  was  positively  blasting  and 
shrivelling  to  its  object.  It  was  also  a  wrath  that  was 
beautiful  to  behold.  There  is  somewhere  a  tradition  of  an 
old  revolutionary  soldier,  who  .  .  .  declared  that  George 
Washington  swore  like  an  angel  from  heaven ;  swore  until 


3i 8  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

the  leaves  on  the  trees  shook,  and  that  never  before  or  since 
had  swearing  been  so  enjoyed  by  a  listener.  I  have  on 
more  than  one  occasion  seen  what  I  call  Henry  D.  Lloyd's 
essential  Christliness  express  itself  within  a  space  of  five 
minutes  in  extreme  and  chivalrous  tenderness  and  a  wrath 
that  simply  scorched  the  ground  before  it. 


Firm,  intrepid,  with  courage  to  condemn  the  evils 
of  the  present,  he  could  never  be  said  to  have  had  one 
silent  moment  from  lack  of  bravery.  Early  in  life 
he  counted  the  cost  and  did  not  flinch,  faced  even  the 
possibility  of  ingratitude  from  the  class  he  was  trying 
most  faithfully  to  serve.  "So  fearless,  so  disdainful 
of  pleasing,"  said  a  friend. 

The  contrast  between  his  equipment  and  the  modesty 
of  his  bearing  was  charming.  All  who  met  him  were 
impressed  by  the  importance  he  placed  upon  their 
ideas  and  the  diffidence  with  which  he  offered  his  own. 
He  demanded  of  society  and  his  fellows  no  exemption 
from  minor  duties  because  of  his  larger  service,  asked 
no  special  privileges,  had  not  the  effrontery  to  be  erratic, 
but  moved  inconspicuously  about  his  duties,  as  exact, 
as  helpful  in  little  ways  as  in  wide.  The  master  of  a 
style  full  of  dynamic  power,  brilliant  with  epigram  and 
imagery,  he  was  ready  at  any  moment  to  subordinate 
it  to  a  mere  recital  of  fact.  For  his  inner  motive  was 
one  altogether  lovely — a  determination  to  help,  in- 
spired by  a  passion  for  humanity.  ' '  Introducing  Henry 
D.  Lloyd,  lover  of  the  human  race, "  were  the  words  that 
came  from  the  pen  of  Professor  William  James  when 
asked  for  a  letter.  In  his  soul  was  the  vision  of  the 
sum  of  humanity,  striving,  defrauded,  bending  under 
burdens  too  heavy  to  bear.  His  words  were  sighs  of 
pity, — "the  poor  people" — "the  people  poor  and 


"  Farewell  and  Hail!  "  319 

defeated."  He  longed  to  help  them,  to  put  his  arm 
about  them,  to  lead  them  into  peace. 

Wide  in  sympathy,  just,  unprejudiced,  his  position 
was  unique.  Standing  against  the  immediate  inter- 
ests of  his  own  class  and  with  the  working  class,  he  was 
yet  pre-eminently  the  friend  of  the  whole  people. 
Few  men  command  respect  and  love  from  so  great  a 
range  of  opinion,  from  all  walks  of  life,  and  in  all 
countries.  Especially  did  there  gravitate  to  him  the 
fine  spirits  in  all  lands  working  for  a  better  day. 
Sometimes  he  met  them  in  person,  and  over  the  res- 
taurant table,  in  the  corridors  of  parliaments,  in  their 
homes,  or  strolling  over  fields  they  surveyed  the  great 
international  problems.  At  other  times  they  poured 
out  their  hearts  to  him  in  letters.  Very  inspiring  is  it 
to  read  his  correspondence,  and  feel  the  thrill  from 
spirit  to  spirit,  the  world  over,  of  the  rising  tide  of 
fervour  for  human  emancipation.  His  morning  mail 
must  often  have  startled  him  with  its  expressions  of 
kinship  from  those  whom  he  had  never  seen.  "Dear 
Stranger-Friend,"  said  one.  They  called  to  him 
"bravo"  and  "God  bless  and  spare  you  long. "  Their 
words  put  courage  and  fire  into  his  efforts,  filled  his 
pen  with  the  currents  of  life.  In  spite  of  all  this  he 
stood  alone  among  men  with  no  near  heart  friend.  The 
inner  depths  of  his  personal  life  no  soul  knew. 

While  the  salvation  of  all,  even  of  those  enjoying  the 
harvest  of  social  misdeeds,  illumined  his  work,  he  felt 
an  infinite  tenderness  toward  the  class  in  immediate 
desperate  need.  When  society  stood  aloof  from  those 
who  were  weary  and  grimy  in  its  service,  and  refused 
to  impute  to  them  the  love  of  cleanliness,  of  home,  of 
education,  here  was  a  man  who  stepped  to  their  side 
with  respect  and  sympathy.  He  was  an  honorary 


320  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

member  of  Typographical  Union  No.  16.  It  was  a 
characteristic  act  of  his,  that  of  refusing  an  invitation 
to  speak  at  the  Twentieth  Century  Club  in  Boston  in 
order  to  address  a  meeting  of  working  girls.  To  the 
workers  he  offered  in  true  modesty  all  his  equipment, 
deeming  it  too  small  a  tribute.  In  their  depression 
he  gave  them  courage,  speaking  always  the  uplifting 
word;  for  he  had  a  sustaining  faith  in  them.  "Their 
life  is  a  gospel,"  he  said.  "They  are  the  hope  of  the 
world,  not  because  they  are  necessarily  better  than 
others,  but  because  by  numbers  and  position  they  are 
incorruptible."  He  believed  that  their  courses  were 
in  the  main  righteous.  When  leading  statesmen  and 
governors  knew  nothing  about  the  great  movements 
among  the  people,  he  knew  more  than  the  people 
themselves.  This  differentiates  him  from  the  men  of 
vast  power  of  his  time,  this  reverence  for  the  movements 
originating  among  the  obscure  people,  this  sympathetic 
observation  of  their  troubles  and  aspirations.  Among 
them  he  heard  the  first  whispers  of  the  new  conscience 
"murmuring  and  humming,"  as  he  said,  "in  the  by- 
ways and  endless  passages  of  the  multitude  preached 
only  by  the  despised  to  the  despised." 

Throughout  his  life  their  tributes  were  his  triumphs. 
"Us  proletariats, "  wrote  one,  "will  hope  to  return  your 
services  some  day."  "With  him,"  writes  another, 
"I  lost  all  my  feeling  of  class  distinction  and  antago- 
nism, all  doubt  and  bitterness  was  gone  and  in  its  place 
perfect  confidence.  All  differences  of  culture  and  re- 
finement in  contrast  with  the  manners  and  language 
of  the  factory  lad  was  merged  in  the  purest  simplicity 
and  limitless  goodness."  He  had  been  tried  and  not 
found  wanting.  When  they  chose  him  to  represent 
their  class  they  sometimes  feared  that  one  so  removed 


"  Farewell  and  Hail! "  321 

from  their  lives  might  not  adequately  represent  their 
case,  but  to  their  surprise  his  arguments  fitted  perfectly. 
The  story  of  the  people  is  heavy  with  disappointment. 
One  by  one  leaders  prove  weak  or  false.  In  him  labour 
throughout  the  country,  even  beyond,  felt  that  it  had 
an  incorruptible  ally.  After  his  American  tour,  John 
Burns  said  that  Lloyd  seemed  the  one  person  whom 
everybody  trusted.  "All  our  members,"  wrote  one, 
"who  had  the  pleasure  of  meeting  you  when  you  were 
here  before  have  a  very  kindly  feeling  for  you,  and  some 
of  us  have  kept  track  of  you  since,  and  we  know  that 
you  are  all  right. "  "I  know  and  those  associated  with 
me  in  the  labour  movement  know,"  wrote  another, 
"that  we  love  and  trust  you  implicitly.  And  don't 
forget  that  there  are  thousands  of  our  helpless  and 
hopeless  fellow  countrymen  and  women  who  are  de- 
pending on  you  to  assist  in  this  grand  fight."  "Con- 
tinue thou  faithful  to  the  end,"  said  another.  This 
he  did,  pressing  ever  forward  into  the  heat  of  the 
struggle,  and  no  act  or  thought  of  his  life  indicates 
that  he  would  ever  have  failed  them  in  their  hour  of 
need. 

He  was  not  himself  conscious  of  nobility  in  his 
motives.  He  said  that  he  was  not  so  much  doing  his 
duty  as  trying  to  find  out  "how  it  is."  He  had  a 
passion  for  truth-seeking  that  was  like  the  hound's 
for  the  scent  of  the  trail.  He  was  not  a  man  crying 
out  because  he  was  hurt  or  lacking  his  share;  none  of 
those  incentives  spurred  him  without  which  it  is  or- 
dinarily taught  that  men  will  not  work.  The  doors  to 
possession,  pleasure,  power,  fame  stood  open.  But  he 
entered  not.  He  left  all  and  deliberately  stepped  to 
the  side  of  battle  and  poverty,  of  insults,  tears,  and 
hopes  deferred,  where  were  no  prizes  but  the  reward 


VOL.  II. 21 


322  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

of  duty  done.  He  chose  the  narrow  way  under  the 
banner  of  the  miserable.  While  the  people  were  too 
busy,  too  burdened  even  to  note  their  increasing  bond- 
age, he  stood  on  guard  for  them,  inviolable,  undaunted. 

The  day  may  come  when  such  a  nature  instead  of 
wearing  itself  out  in  combat  and  repression  will  be 
joyously  summoned  into  the  councils  of  power.  On 
rare  occasions,  in  moments  of  depression  or  fatigue,  he 
gave  a  hint  of  the  loneliness  of  his  position,  of  his 
longing  to  cease  strife.  "I  sometimes  feel,"  he  wrote 
to  a  friend,  "as  if  I  were  out  on  the  firing  line,  but  such 
appreciative  words  as  yours  make  me  feel  less  lonely. " 
Among  the  clippings  which  he  saved  is  one  which  seems 
to  have  an  indirect  bearing  on  his  own  career.  It 
relates  to  Jeremy  Bentham,  whose  life  was  devoted  to 
the  public  needs  of  his  time.  "He  was  a  great  man, 
whose  conceptions  have  been  largely  accepted,"  it 
reads,  "but,  because  he  was  not  a  minister,  or  a  soldier, 
or  even  a  member  of  Parliament,  his  services  are  re- 
membered only  by  a  few."  So  with  Lloyd.  All  those 
splendid  qualities  of  heart  and  mind,  which  might 
have  made  him  a  deliverer  in  a  crisis,  spent  themselves 
in  modest  and  faithful  service  during  a  formative 
period. 

Over  his  writing  table  at  Sakonnet  hung  a  photo- 
graph of  Daniel  French's  bas-relief  in  which  the  sculptor 
with  chisel  uplifted  in  work  feels  the  hand  of  Death 
grasping  his  own.  Even  so  was  he  cut  off  in  the  after- 
noon of  life,  with  many  hours  of  work  yet  before  dark. 
For  the  immediate  future,  he  intended  to  continue  his 
tours  as  a  democratic  traveller  and  to  put  together 
more  journalistic  books  to  bring  quickly  to  the  people 
the  news  of  their  progress.  He  was  already  looking  up 
bicycle  roads  and  other  travellers'  hints  for  such  a 


"  Farewell  and  Hail!  "  323 

quest  in  Egypt.  He  intended  to  go  to  India,  to  the 
Philippines,  to  bring  to  the  English  and  American 
people  the  truth  about  the  injustice  of  their  adminis- 
trations. He  was  at  once  to  write  into  a  book,  "The 
Swiss  Sovereign,"  his  story  of  the  Swiss  democracy. 
The  material  lay  ready  on  his  desk.  The  task  was 
undertaken  by  "his  friend,  the  distinguished  English 
economist  John  A.  Hobson,  who,  treating  reverently 
Lloyd's  notes,  made  them  into  a  book  in  1907, 
called  A  Sovereign  People.  Despite  the  difficulties 
of  the  task  Mr.  Hobson  produced  a  valuable  work  but 
modestly  would  not  claim  the  authorship  really  his. 

Of  what  might  lie  beyond  Lloyd  had  said  little.  With 
a  philosophy  that  reverenced  the  local  and  the  present, 
and  raised  to  high  significance  the  material  side  of 
life,  he  continually  related  his  work  to  the  current 
issue,  whereby  the  crisis  was  working  out  its  special 
task  of  emancipation.  He  did  not  dwell  apart  on  the 
heights  or  ruminate  in  tranquil  shades.  Like  the  poet 
whom  Emerson  describes,  "There  is  no  subject  that 
does  not  belong  to  him, — politics,  economy,  manufac- 
tures, and  stock-brokerage,  as  much  as  sunsets  and 
souls."  But  all  through  his  treatment  of  present 
material  problems  there  flashed  glimpses  of  the  visions 
which  were  filling  his  solitude.  Already  he  had  pre- 
figured in  "The  New  Conscience"  and  in  "The  Manu- 
script of  1896"  the  lines  along  which  he  should  move 
in  linking  with  the  universal  and  spiritual  all  the 
perplexing  mesh  of  our  modern  economic  conditions. 
There  is  every  reason  to  know  that  this  was  a  conscious 
part  of  his  life  plan.  He  knew  his  era.  The  con- 
structive day  was  coming.  But  only  in  the  unrestrained 
flow  of  his  talk  or  in  his  lectures,  rarely  in  his  published 
work,  did  his  dreaming  take  flight.  Before  he  had 


324  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd 

spoken  finally,  midway  in  his  intellectual  life,  his  work 
was  ended.  Had  he  lived  into  a  period  of  the  triumph 
of  his  cause,  his  message  might  have  been  full.  He 
might  have  summoned  to  the  formulation  of  the  new 
code  all  that  creative  brilliancy  of  mind  and  that  liter- 
ary grace  through  which  he  had  so  often  felt  obliged  to 
draw  an  inexorable  line.  On  his  death-bed  he  gave 
directions  that  there  be  published  his  unfinished  manu- 
scripts and  notes.  His  finest  addresses  were  imprinted 
and  little  known,  for  disdainful  of  fame  he  had  ever 
hastened  onward  to  new  tasks. 

One  who  believes  as  he  did  that  in  man  and  nature 
may  be  found  our  salvation,  that  all  labour  is  religious 
and  its  performance  for  humanity  the  real  "service," 
approaches  life  with  limitless  devotion.  Although  he 
miss  the  charm  of  sacred  ritual  and  hallowed  music, 
the  glory  of  stained  glass  and  Gothic  shelter,  the  bleak 
path  of  the  pioneer  is  self -illumined.  Lloyd's  life  was 
a  noble  example  of  the  worship  he  described  in  his 
"Church  of  the  Deed."  That  piety  with  which  his 
race  had  for  generations  looked  skyward  turned  in  him 
to  a  passionate  devotion  to  the  body  of  toiling,  aspiring 
humanity.  It  exalted  into  spiritual  importance  the 
human  needs  of  food  and  shelter,  and  lifted  into 
universal  brotherhood  the  lowliest  creature.  It  made 
his  city  a  part  of  heaven,  every  day  an  immortal 
moment,  "every  building  a  temple,  every  man  a  re- 
deemer." With  his  mind  on  distant  peaks,  he  bent 
uncomplainingly  over  his  drudgery,  always  believing 
it  his  highest  duty  to  advance  in  every  possible  way 
the  goal  of  his  age, — the  attainment  of  industrial 
brotherhood. 

O,  People  of  America,  whom  he  loved,  to  you  he 
looked  in  hope.  His  life  in  its  entirety  is  an  appeal  from 


"  Farewell  and  Hail!  "  325 

the  depths  of  his  soul  to  you.  All  through  his  thought 
shimmers  the  faith  that  you  will  bear  the  standard 
of  humanity's  redemption  onward  to  its  next  station. 
Emerson's  prophecy  that  there  would  be  a  revelation 
in  the  West  was  echoed  by  him.  It  was  there  that  he 
looked  for  its  coming  and  for  a  Messiah  who  would 
make  a  religion  of  democracy,  and  thereby,  as  Mazzini 
prophesied,  save  the  world.  "When  the  West  .  .  .  gets 
its  full  strength  of  bone  and  mind,  and  knows  and  trusts 
itself,  and  becomes  conscious,  the  revelation  will 
come."  The  great  forces  of  deliverance  were,  he 
declared,  already  awaiting  a  voice.  To  help  inspire 
in  you  the  divine  impulse,  this  record  of  his  work  is 
given.  "Never  so  much  material  as  now  for  that 
leader  to  the  higher  life.  The  world  waits. " 


APPENDIX 

Volume  I,  page  54.  From  an  interview  with  Mr.  Lloyd 
in  the  Seattle  Daily  Times,  October  12,  1901 : 

"The  general  events  of  the  occasion  are  as  vivid  in  my 
memory  as  though  it  had  happened  but  a  short  time  ago. 
To  understand  fully  the  significance  of  the  ceremony  it  will 
be  necessary  to  say  a  few  words  of  the  wonderfully  magnetic 
and  impressive  personality  of  Henry  Villard,  then  President 
of  the  Northern  Pacific,  who  at  the  time  of  the  driving  of 
the  golden  spike  was  at  the  very  pinnacle  of  his  success  as  a 
railroad  and  empire  builder  and  financier.  Mr.  Villard 
was  a  most  wonderful  man  in  many  ways.  So  magnetic 
was  he  in  person  that  it  is  even  said  that  many  men  of 
wealth  would  not  allow  themselves  to  be  left  alone  with 
him  for  fear  that  he  might,  by  the  power  of  his  will  and 
magnetic  personality,  be  able  to  induce  them  to  consent  to 
financial  undertakings  and  advance  money  in  enterprises 
of  which  their  judgment  did  not  approve. 

"One  of  the  most  startling  displays  of  this  remarkable 
power  .  .  .  was  that  of  the  formation  of  the  blind  pool, 
through  the  agency  of  which  he  purchased  the  Northern 
Pacific  Railroad.  That  event  is  now  historic,  but  to  recall 
it  I  will  merely  outline  the  deal.  Villard  one  day  called  into 
his  office  a  number  of  the  largest  and  wealthiest  Wall  Street 
speculators  and  asked  them  to  advance  him  eight  million 
dollars  on  his  personal  receipt  for  investment  in  an  enter- 
prise which  he  promised  them  would  be  immensely  profitable 
to  them  all.  He  told  them  that  if  he  told  them  what  he 

327 


328  Appendix 

wanted  to  do  with  the  money  it  would  get  out  in  some  way 
and  the  opportunity  would  be  lost.  Therefore  he  asked 
their  fullest  confidence.  And  so  impressed  were  the  men 
in  the  party  with  his  earnestness  and  confidence  in  his  under- 
taking that  before  they  left  the  room  there  was  subscribed 
to  the  fund  asked  for  more  than  #16,000,000,  or  double  the 
amount  asked  for.  For  this  money  Mr.  Villard  gave  his 
personal  receipt,  and  so  great  was  the  popular  confidence 
in  him  as  a  financier  that  within  a  few  days  and  before  he 
disclosed  to  the  men  advancing  the  money  the  purpose  for 
which  it  was  intended,  the  receipts  which  he  gave  for  the 
money  were  selling  above  par. 

"This  was  the  money  with  which  Mr.  Villard  financed 
the  purchase  of  the  Northern  Pacific.  That  was  the  begin- 
ning of  his  international  prominence.  From  that  time 
until  the  time  of  the  driving  of  the  golden  spike  his  star 
continued  in  the  ascendant.  Money  came  to  him  for  the 
|  asking  and  upon  his  personal  word  the  millionaires  of 
Europe  poured  their  money  into  the  Northern  Pacific 
enterprise. 

"This  then  is  the  character  of  the  man  who  in  the  sum- 
mer of  1883,  the  year  following  the  completion  of  the  rail- 
road across  the  continent  to  its  then  terminus  at  Portland, 
Ore.,  invited  scores  of  notables  from  all  parts  of  the  globe, 
and  brought  them  west  in  magnificently-equipped  trains 
...  to  witness  the  driving  of  the  golden  spike  which 
signified  the  linking  together  of  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific 
Oceans.  The  ceremony  was  unique  in  history.  I  believe 
that  a  golden  spike  was  driven  upon  the  completion  of  the 
Union  Pacific,  but  that  was  a  mere  sideshow  by  the  side  of 
the  elaborate  ceremony  arranged  by  Henry  Villard.  On 
that  occasion  there  were  present  as  guests  a  number  of 
English  and  German  noblemen,  .  .  .  leading  European 
financiers  and  statesmen  .  .  .  and  a  number  of  the  most 
prominent  men  in  America,  including  General  Grant.  .  .  . 
William  M.  Evarts,  then  in  the  height  of  his  greatness,  was 
a  member  of  the  party,  and  also  a  noted  English  barrister, 


Appendix  329 

whose  name  I  do  not  at  present  recall.  Both  were  very 
brilliant  and  they  spent  a  good  portion  of  their  time  in  the 
exchange  of  witticisms  in  conversation  greatly  to  the 
entertainment  of  the  company.  It  was  on  the  trip  west 
that  these  two  men  exchanged  that  now  famous  colloquy 
concerning  the  prowess  of  George  Washington.  One  of  the 
American  guests  introduced  the  subject  by  telling  them  of 
Washington  throwing  a  silver  dollar  across  the  Delaware 
River.  Whereupon  Mr.  Evarts  responded: 

" '  That  was  not  at  all  a  remarkable  feat. ' 

"'Why?'  asked  a  member  of  the  company. 

"'Because,'  explained  Mr.  Evarts,  'a  dollar  would  go  so 
much  farther  in  those  days  than  it  will  now. ' 

" '  But  there  was  one  feat  of  Washington's  prowess  which 
was  greater  than  that, '  interposed  the  barrister. 

'"And  what  was  that?'  some  one  asked. 

"'Why,  when  he  threw  an  English  sovereign  across  the 
Atlantic. ' " 

"The  party  included  in  addition  to  those  named  Mr. 
James  A.  Bryce,  the  noted  English  statesman  and  author, 
David  A.  Wells,  Mayor  Rice  of  St.  Paul,  Noah  Brooks, 
Edward  King,  then  a  well  known  newspaper  man  and 
novelist,  William  Henry,  then  the  president  of  the  Asso- 
ciated Press,  and  many  other  prominent  men,  the  names  of 
whom  I  have  now  forgotten.  .  .  .  There  were  a  number  of 
newspaper  men,  and  we  had  a  car  to  ourselves.  .  .  . 

"On  the  way  west  the  party  was  entertained  at  all  of  the 
large  cities  and  travelled  from  place  to  place  in  several 
trains  of  munificently  furnished  and  equipped  cars.  At 
Lake  Minnetonka  there  was  a  very  elaborate  banquet 
served  and  I  recall  one  incident  of  it  in  the  arrival,  after  the 
guests  were  seated,  of  General  Grant  and  his  wife  who 
walked  the  full  length  of  the  banquet  hall  in  the  very 
unpretentious  manner  characteristic  of  the  man,  while  the 
entire  company  rose  to  their  feet  and  cheered  lustily  for  the 
great  military  captain. 

' '  At  another  city  where  we  stopped  a  reception  was  held 


330  Appendix 

and  General  Grant  was  the  central  figure.  He  shook 
hands  with  the  crowd  and  after  all  those  present  had  passed 
he  turned  to  us  and  showed  us  a  long  gash  across  his  hand 
which  one  of  the  party  had  scratched  with  some  sharp 
metal  instrument.  Although  the  cut  must  have  pained 
him  severely  he  stood  stoically  and  shook  hands  with  the 
remaining  members  of  the  party  before  mentioning  the 
incident. 

"Upon  the  arrival  of  the  party  at  the  place  where  the 
ceremony  was  to  be  held,  two  locomotives  were  drawn  up 
nose  to  nose  on  the  track  but  a  short  distance  apart  and 
between  them  the  party  gathered.  Mr.  Evarts  made  a 
brief  speech,  Mr.  Villard  made  a  speech,  and  the  golden 
spike  was  driven.  The  party  then  proceeded  on  to  the 
Coast  where  it  dispersed  into  a  number  of  smaller 
parties. 

"The  event  of  driving  the  golden  spike  is  a  notable  one 
from  the  fact  that  it  marked  the  turn  in  Mr.  Villard's 
fortunes.  Why  this  was  it  is  of  course  impossible  to  say. 
Up  to  that  time  he  had  had  money  for  his  gigantic  schemes 
for  the  asking,  he  had  risen  in  the  financial  world  with 
great  rapidity,  and  all  his  sails  were  set  to  a  favourable 
breeze.  But  whether  his  opponents  in  Wall  Street  took 
advantage  of  his  absence  to  start  a  war  upon  Villard 
securities,  or  whether  the  heavy  European  holders  of  the 
stock  who  accompanied  him  on  his  spectacular  expedition 
were  disappointed  and  frightened  to  see  what  a  barren  and 
unsettled  country  the  road  ran  through  and  cabled  home 
heavy  selling  orders,  or  whether  from  both  of  these  and 
many  other  reasons,  that  was  the  turning  point  in  the  for- 
tunes of  the  Northern  Pacific  and  Mr.  Villard,  and  from 
that  time  the  securities  fell  in  the  market  and  calamity 
followed  disaster  until  the  road  was  bankrupt  and  went  into 
the  hands  of  receivers." 


Volume  I.,  page  93: 

No  exact  account  of  the  private  audience  of  the  Salter- 


Appendix  331 

Lloyd  delegation  was  published.     The  manuscript  of  Mr. 
Lloyd's  petition  contains  the  following  preamble: 

"CHICAGO,  Nov.  8,  1887. 
"GOVERNOR  RICHARD  OGLESBY. 

"SiR: 

"We  hereby  present  a  petition  for  the  commutation 
of  the  sentence  of  the  seven  men  condemned  to  be  hanged 
November  nth.  We  ask  to  have  this  petition  attached  to 
the  one  which  has  been  prepared  by  the  counsel  for  the 
condemned  in  compliance  with  the  requirements  of  the 
statutes  regulating  applications  for  pardon,  so  that  we  may 
be  considered  to  have  properly  complied  with  the  law. 

"The  decisions  of  the  courts  that  have  been  made  in  the 
Anarchists'  cases,  we  accept.  They  are  the  law. 

"The  penalties  that  have  been  adjudged  are  legal.  They 
are  the  law.  We  accept  them. 

"But  the  law  itself  gives  the  citizen  the  privilege  of  asking 
for  justice  when  he  believes  that  the  formal  reasoned  inexor- 
able decision  of  the  law  is  not  just. 

"The  language  of  the  statute  regulating  pardons  recog- 
nised this  distinction,  and  the  right  of  a  citizen  to  avail 
himself  of  it,  for  it  permits  the  Governor  to  waive  certain 
requirements  of  the  statute  when  'justice  or  humanity' 
require  it. 

"Accepting  the  law  we  come  to  ask  you  to  consider 
reasons  which  in  our  opinion  make  it  justice  to  inflict  upon 
these  men  punishment  less  severe  than  the  sentence  of 
hanging  legally  pronounced  upon  them. 

"Owing  to  its  connection  with  the  world- wide  labour 
problem  pressing  on  us  to  our  surprise  almost  as  heavily  as 
upon  grey  Europe,  this  case  which  on  its  way  through  the 
courts  was  but  a  criminal  proceeding  becomes,  as  it  appears 
before  the  Governor  of  Illinois,  the  greatest  question  of 
State  since  the  pardon  of  Jefferson  Davis  and  Robert  E. 
Lee,  and  perhaps  a  greater  question. 

"Much  of  the  idle — or  worse — talk  of  the  day  brushes 


332  Appendix 

away  the  labour  problem  as  the  nightmare  of  unwelcome 
foreigners  or  turbulent  working  men.  Portentous  mistake. 
In  a  call  issued  in  October  for  a  general  conference  of  ... 
evangelical  Christians  to  be  held  at  Washington,  D.  C., 
December  7th,  8th,  and  9th  to  study  the  present  perils 
and  opportunities  of  the  Christian  church  we  find  the 
following : 

'"Popular  education  has  multiplied  wants  and  created 
tastes  which  wealth  has  not  been  sufficiently  distributed  to 
gratify;  hence  a  growing  discontent  among  working  men, 
which  in  prosperous  times  is  an  ill  omen,  suggesting  grave 
questions  concerning  the  next  financial  panic,  and  a  conse- 
quent industrial  depression. 

'"The  existence  of  great  cities,  severe  competition,  an 
unemployed  class  increasing  in  pauperism  and  crime  are 
the  occasion  and  evidence  of  a  wide  spread  of  discontent  for 
which  the  ballot  affords  no  remedy. ' 

"This  call  is  signed  by  the  great  merchant  E.  W.  Blatch- 
ford,  Esq.,  of  Chicago,  the  great  banker  Morris  K.  Jesup, 
Esq.,  of  New  York,  the  great  merchant  William  E.  Dodge, 
of  New  York,  the  Rev.  Philip  Schaff,  President  James 
McCosh  of  Princeton  University,  President  Mark  Hopkins 
of  Williams  College,  President  Timothy  Dwight  of  Yale 
University,  President  Julius  H.  Seelye  of  Amherst  College, 
and  nearly  one  hundred  other  leading  clergymen,  capitalists, 
thinkers,  and  leaders  of  society  and  culture  in  the  United 
States. 

"As  one  more  evidence  that  a  labourers'  question  presses 
upon  the  minds  of  men  who  are  not  strangers  or  rioters,  we 
add  the  following  extract  from  an  article  in  the  North 
American  Review  by  the  distinguished  clergyman,  Howard 
Crosby,  of  New  York: 

" 'It  is  by  the  growing  power  of  this  class  of  tyrants  (the 
monopolists)  that  our  country's  safety  is  now  threatened. 
The  danger  will  come  in  two  forms,  the  demoralisation  of 
society,  and  the  vengeance  of  the  oppressed.  Combinations 
of  capitalists  and  legislators  to  rob  the  poor  for  the  benefit 


Appendix  333 

« 

of  the  rich  will  eventually  meet  with  counter  combinations 
who  will  not  confine  themselves  to  robbery. ' 

"The  present  peril  of  our  country  is  exactly  here.  The 
dangerous  classes  among  us  are  those  who  are  engaged  in 
amassing  colossal  fortunes,  the  giants  who  tread  ordinary 
men  under  their  heel,  and  care  not  how  much  the  people 
suffer.  In  monarchical  countries  so  long  as  the  people  can 
find  their  living  they  will  endure  the  oppression,  but  in  a 
Republic  like  ours  the  time  of  account  will  come  sooner. 
Here  the  people  will  not  wait  until  they  are  ruined.  They 
have  some  notions  of  right,  some  forethought  of  impending 
evil,  and  they  will  anticipate  their  own  crisis  by  making  a 
crisis  for  others. " 

The  petition  then  continued  as  printed  in  the  Chicago 
Tribune,  November  10,  1887: 

"GOVERNOR  RICHARD  J.  OGLESBY — SIR:  We  now  offer 
for  your  consideration  a  skeleton  statement  of  facts  which 
for  the  most  part  did  not  appear  in  the  proceedings  in  court, 
which  show: 

"i.  That  the  words  and  acts  for  which  these  men  are 
sentenced  to  be  hanged  grew  out  of  the  great  labour  struggle 
of  our  day,  and 

"2.  That  their  circumstances  were  such  that  although 
law  and  justice  demand  punishment,  justice  demands  that 
that  punishment  shall  be  less  than  death. 

"  Not  first  in  the  order  of  the  case,  but  first  in  historical 
order,  is  the  Lehr  und  Wehr  Verein,  which  filled  so  impor- 
tant a  place  in  the  array  of  facts  in  the  decision  of  the  State 
Supreme  Court.  The  evidence  introduced  makes  the  Lehr 
und  Wehr  Verein  one  of  the  concentric  circles  of  the  con- 
spiracy, the  declaration  of  its  members  and  its  practices  of 
drilling,  and  so  forth,  a  vital  part  of  the  case  against  the 
condemned.  The  Supreme  Court  describes  the  Lehr  und 
Wehr  Verein  as  a  certain  armed  socialistic  organisation, 
whose  members  seem  also  to  have  been  members  of  the 


334  Appendix 

International  Groups  but  to  have  been  of  a  higher  rank,  and 
to  have  attained  a  higher  grade  in  the  perfection  of  their 
drill  than  was  the  case  with  the  ordinary  members  of  the 
armed  groups.  This  body  owes  its  life  to  the  alarm  and 
feeling  of  insecurity  excited  among  the  working  men  by  the 
unfortunate  affair  of  July  26,  1877,  at  Turner-Hall,  Twelfth 
Street,  Chicago,  as  described  in  a  decision  of  the  Circuit 
Court  of  Cook  County,  'The  Harmonia  Association  of 
Joiners  versus  Michael  C.  Hickey  et  al. '  The  facts  estab- 
lished by  a  large  number  of  witnesses  and  without  any 
opposing  evidence  are:  That  July  26,  1877,  this  society 
having  leased  Turner-Hall  on  West  Twelfth  Street  for  the 
purpose,  held  a  meeting  in  the  forenoon  of  that  day  in  said 
hall,  composed  of  from  200  to  300  individuals,  most  of  whom 
were  journeymen  cabinetmakers.  Some  of  those  in  atten- 
dance were  the  proprietors  in  the  business  or  delegates  sent 
by  them.  The  object  of  the  meeting  was  to  obtain  a  con- 
ference of  the  journeymen  with  such  proprietors  or  their 
authorised  delegates  with  the  view  of  endeavouring  to 
secure  an  increase  in  the  price  or  diminution  of  the  hours  of 
labour.  The  attendants  were  unarmed,  the  meeting  was 
peaceable  and  orderly.  While  the  people  were  sitting  quietly 
with  their  backs  towards  the  entrance  of  the  hall,  with  a 
few  persons  on  the  stage  in  front  of  them,  all  engaged  merely 
in  the  business  for  which  they  had  assembled,  a  force  of  from 
fifteen  to  twenty  policemen  came  suddenly  into  the  hall, 
many  if  not  all  of  them  having  a  police  club  in  one  hand  and 
a  revolver  in  the  other,  and  making  no  pause  to  determine 
the  actual  character  of  the  meeting,  they  immediately 

shouted : '  Get  out  of  here,  you '  and  began  beating 

the  people  with  their  clubs,  some  of  them  actually  firing 
their  revolvers.  One  young  man  was  shot  through  the 
back  of  the  head  and  killed,  but  to  complete  the  atrocity  of 
the  affair  on  the  part  of  the  officers  engaged  in  it,  when  the 
people  hastened  to  make  their  escape  from  the  assembly 
room,  they  found  policemen  stationed  on  either  side  of  the 
stairway  leading  from  the  hall  down  to  the  street,  who 


Appendix  335 

applied  their  clubs  to  them  as  they  passed,  seemingly  with 
all  the  violence  practicable  tinder  the  circumstances.  These 
general  facts  are  established  by  an  overwhelming  mass  of 
testimony.  This  proceeding  of  the  police  the  court  declares 
'clearly  amounted  to  a  criminal  riot.' 

"The  effect  of  this  occurrence  was  to  drive  the  working 
men  in  large  numbers  to  seek  some  protective  organisation 
for  defence  against  a  repetition  of  such  'criminal  riots.' 
They  selected  the  Lehr  und  Wehr  Verein,  which  had  been 
organised  under  a  charter  from  the  State  two  years  before, 
but  had  had  little  more  than  a  formal  existence.  The 
working  men  now  went  into  it  so  generally  that  its  member- 
ship rose  to  thousands.  So  intimately  is  the  Lehr  und 
Wehr  Verein  associated  in  the  minds  of  the  working  men  of 
Chicago  with  their  search  for  means  of  defence  against  such 
criminal  riots  as  that  of  July  26,  1877,  that  if  your  Excel- 
lency will  ask  the  working  men  when  this  organisation  was 
formed,  most  of  them  will  answer,  after  the  police  riot  at 
Turner-Hall  in  1877.  It  was  really  started  in  1875  and  for 
the  following  purposes — to  wit :  '  The  association  is  formed 
for  the  purpose  of  improving  the  mental  and  bodily  condi- 
tion of  its  members  so  as  to  qualify  them  for  the  duties  of 
citizens  of  a  Republic.  The  members  will  therefore  obtain 
in  meetings  of  the  association  a  knowledge  of  our  laws  and 
political  economy,  and  shall  also  be  instructed  in  military 
and  gymnastic  exercises. ' 

"Gladstone  has  said  of  the  recent  Mitchellstown  affair: 
'The  responsibility  rests  with  those  who  committed  the 
first  fault.'  Part  of  the  responsibility  for  the  chain  of 
events  that  culminated  at  the  Haymarket  rests  elsewhere 
than  upon  the  working  men,  who  began  arming  in  what 
was  then  a  legal  manner  to  protect  themselves  against 
attacks  by  the  police  declared  unlawful  and  criminal  by  the 
judgment  of  the  courts.  All  of  this  arming  and  drilling  of 
the  armed  group  and  of  the  Lehr  und  Wehr  Verein  follow 
this  police  attack  of  1877  m  time,  and  that  which  the 
Supreme  Court  considers  the  most  important  of  it,  that 


336  Appendix 

done  by  the  Lehr  und  Wehr  Verein,  followed  it  as  a  conse- 
quence. Without  excusing  any  blunders  or  legal  offence 
that  may  have  been  connected  therewith,  is  there  not  here 
basis  for  a  valid  plea  for  something  less  severe  than  hanging 
as  a  punishment  for  these  men?  This  association  which 
the  working  men  joined  after  the  police  riot  of  1877  and  the 
existence  of  which  is  woven  into  the  chain  of  conspiracy 
was  a  legally  incorporated  society  and  under  the  laws  of  the 
State  it  was  legal  then  for  its  members  to  drill  and  bear 
arms  in  public.  This  right  was  afterwards  taken  away  by 
a  State  law,  sustained  by  the  United  States  Supreme  Court, 
but  your  Excellency  is  aware  that  the  working  men  believed 
then,  and  believe  now,  that  this  was  done  to  deprive  them 
of  the  means  of  defence  that  they  had  formed  against  a 
repetition  of  police  attacks.  If  they  continued  arming  and 
drilling  unlawfully  it  was,  though  a  legal  offence,  something 
quite  different  from  the  inception  of  an  overt,  revolutionary, 
malicious,  diabolical  scheme  to  rob,  kill,  and  destroy, 
which  the  public  are  told  it  was.  It  was  the  continuation 
of  what  had  been  lawful  when  begun,  and  was  a  defensive 
activity  driven  into  secrecy  by  what  the  working  men 
believed  to  be  a  plan  to  leave  them  without  means  of 
necessary  defence. 

"Membership  in  the  International  Association,  which 
advocated  reorganisation  of  society  by  force,  and  words  of  a 
general  revolutionary  character  uttered  in  connection  there- 
with, were  not  enough,  according  to  the  courts,  to  make  the 
condemned  guilty.  Complicity  was  required  to  be  shown 
in  the  special  plot  of  Monday  evening,  May  3d,  at  Greif's 
Hall,  of  the  representatives  of  the  armed  groups.  These 
represented  the  whole  association,  and  so  included  all  the 
condemned.  Hence  though  but  two  of  the  eight  accused, 
Engel  and  Fischer,  were  present,  all  the  others  are  held 
guilty  with  them.  To  prove  the  details  of  the  Monday 
night  plot  the  State  introduced  two  witnesses,  Waller  and 
Schrade,  and  both  of  these  testified  that  the  occasion  of  the 
meeting  was  that  six  men  were  believed  to  have  been  killed 


Appendix  337 

at  McCormick's  Monday  afternoon,  and  plans  were  dis- 
cussed as  to  future  conflicts  of  the  police,  and  the  Hay- 
market  meeting  was  planned  to  protest  against  the  killing 
at  McCormick's.  The  fact  is  not  stated  in  the  brief  on 
either  side,  nor  does  there  exist  any  formal  or  recorded 
evidence  of  it,  but  I  judge  it  to  be  competent  to  state  here 
as  a  fact,  verifiable  by  inquiry,  that  at  the  time  of  this 
meeting,  the  working  men  believed,  as  they  believe  to  this 
day,  that  the  police,  after  quelling  the  riot  at  McCormick's, 
followed  the  fleeing  men  and  boys  and  shot  them  as  they 
ran,  a  course  which  the  working  men  believed  to  be  an 
unlawful  attack  upon  their  lives.  Should  this  prove  upon 
inquiry  by  your  Excellency  to  have  been  the  common 
belief  among  the  working  men,  I  respectfully  submit  the 
inquiry  if  it  does  not  change  the  colour  of  the  revenge 
circular,  the  call  for  the  Haymarket  meeting,  the  plans  and 
the  talk  of  the  Monday  night  meeting,  which  are  all  impor- 
tant links  in  the  evidence  upon  which  the  courts  have 
condemned  these  seven  men  as  guilty  of  murder  at  the 
Haymarket.  Of  the  two  witnesses  for  the  State — Waller 
and  Schrade — who  proved  the  details  of  the  Monday  night 
meeting,  Schrade  says,  as  reported  in  the  brief  of  the  State 
before  the  Supreme  Court,  that  a  mass-meeting  was  to  be 
held  at  the  Haymarket  Square  and  that  they  should  prepare 
in  case  the  police  should  interfere  or  go  beyond  their  bounds. 
He  testified  both  upon  the  direct  and  the  cross-examination. 
Upon  his  cross-examination  Waller  also  gave  a  defensive 
character  to  the  plans  of  the  Monday  night  meeting,  but 
not  so  clearly  as  the  other  witness.  (Grinnell's  brief  before 
the  Supreme  Court,  pp.  163-172.) 

"If  there  is  anything  in  this  testimony  of  the  State's 
witnesses,  and  they  are  the  only  witnesses  by  which  the 
State  proved  the  character  of  the  meeting,  it  seems  impor- 
tant in  consideration  of  reasons  for  commutation,  because 
Monday  night  is  the  connecting  link  by  which  the  members 
of  the  International  Working  Men's  Association  are  held 
responsible  by  the  law  for  the  Haymarket  crime.  It  is 

VOL.  II — 22 


338  Appendix 

through  the  act  of  Engel  and  Fischer  at  the  Monday  night 
meeting  that  thousands  of  their  fellow-members  could,  as 
we  apprehend  the  law,  all  be  prosecuted  as  guilty  of  murder. 
If  this  stern  view  of  the  law  can  be  mitigated  by  considera- 
tions of  justice  based  upon  this  evidence  as  to  purposes  of 
defence,  not  only  the  condemned  now  before  you  are  con- 
cerned, but  thousands  of  other  working  men.  Public  opinion 
upon  the  Haymarket  affair  has  been  formed  and  set  by  the 
decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  more  than  by  any  other 
agency,  but  the  law  evidently  takes  little  account  of  the 
defensive  motive,  for  I  do  not  find  that  the  Supreme  Court, 
in  its  opinion,  says  anything  about  this  aspect  of  the  testi- 
mony, although  it  is  given  by  the  same  witnesses  by  whom 
the  State  proved  the  specific  conspiracy  for  Engel  and 
Fischer's  part  in  which  these  men  are  to  hang,  and  for 
Engel  and  Fischer's  part  in  which  thousands  of  their  fellow- 
members  appear  to  be  legally  liable  for  prosecution  for 
murder.  That  part  of  the  testimony  of  these  two,  and 
theirs  is  all  the  testimony  that  proves  for  the  State  the 
details  of  the  conspiracy,  which  is  used  by  the  Supreme 
Court  in  its  summary,  gives  the  plan  of  this  Monday  night 
meeting  the  dye  of  an  overt,  malicious  conspiracy  to  commit 
murder  by  wholesale  and  destroy  the  city.  That  part  of  it 
not  mentioned  by  the  Supreme  Court  tends  to  show  that 
what  was  planned  to  be  done  was  to  be  done  seemingly  in 
part  in  self-defence.  That  this  is  the  correct  view  of  the 
evidence  is  not  to  be  questioned  before  your  Excellency, 
but  this  apparent  difference  between  the  actual  and  the 
legal  purport  of  the  plans  appears  to  be  great  enough  to 
raise  the  question  whether  for  the  legal  punishment  declared 
by  the  court  a  less  extreme  penalty  might  not  justly  be 
substituted. 

"A  question  is  raised  concerning  the  jury  by  the  affidavit 
of  Otis  S.  Favor,  which  has  been  submitted.  This  evidence 
has  been  offered  to-day  for  the  first  time  under  affidavit. 
Affiant  declined,  when  the  case  was  before  the  trial  court,  to 
make  a  voluntary  affidavit,  and  the  court  declined  for 


Appendix  339 

technical  reasons  to  call  him  into  court,  and  the  State 
Supreme  Court  for  technical  reasons  sustained  the  trial 
court.  Is  this  justice  to  the  weaker  party  in  the  dispute 
between  labour  and  capital,  if  this  distinct  and  solemn 
proffer  of  evidence  that  the  panels  for  the  jury  which  hangs 
these  seven  men  were  selected  by  the  bailiff  with  the  idea 
that  the  resulting  jury  would  hang  goes  unheard  and  un- 
heeded?" 

Mr.  Lloyd  then  referred  to  a  case  in  England  in  which  a 
sentence  was  commuted.  Continuing,  he  said: 

"It  is  certain  the  working  people  of  the  world  will  never 
comprehend  the  technical  legal  reasons  which  justify 
disregard  of  such  an  allegation  as  this  concerning  the  jury. 
The  world  will  say  evidence  was  offered  court  and  Governor 
that  these  men  were  condemned  by  a  packed  jury,  but  that 
neither  court  nor  Governor  would  hear  the  evidence.  At 
West  Twelfth  Street,  in  1877,  the  blood  of  the  working  men 
was  shed  unlawfully  and  with  impunity,  as  later  at  East  St. 
Louis  and  the  Chicago  Stock- Yards.  Blood  has  now  been 
shed  on  the  other  side,  and  for  this  let  the  hand  of  the  hang- 
man be  staid  before  it  is  ready  to  do  legal  vengeance.  Here 
is  a  series  of  events,  beginning  with  an  unlawful  and  fatal 
attack  upon  citizens  by  the  police  and  ending  in  an  unlaw- 
ful and  fatal  attack  upon  the  police  by  some  one  unknown, 
both  occurrences  being  episodes  in  what  appears  to  be 
growing  into  the  most  difficult  social  readjustment  in 
history.  Are  there  not  in  the  whole  chain  of  events  cir- 
cumstances which  make  it  consistent  with  justice  to  lessen 
the  punishment  legally  decreed?  Full  punishment  can  be 
meted  out  and  full  protection  given  the  Commonwealth 
without  this  act  of  unjust  though  legal  bloodshed. " 


Volume  /.,  page  204.  Letter  in  the  Chemical  Trade 
Journal,  October  13,  1896:  "An  American  View  of  the 
Petroleum  Question." 


34°  Appendix 

"To  THE  EDITOR  OF  THE  CHEMICAL  TRADE  JOURNAL: 

"SiR:  Your  admirable  exposition  of  the  merits  of  the 
demand  that  the  Flash  Test  of  oil  be  raised  has  been  read 
with  approval  here  by  those  familiar  with  the  facts.  That 
a  people  with  the  high  regard  of  the  English  for  the  sanctity 
of  life,  and  with  their  intelligent  insistence  upon  every 
possible  sanitary  and  police  regulation  for  the  protection 
of  the  public  health  and  safety,  should  allow  their  market 
to  be  made  the  dumping  ground  for  refuse  American  oil  is 
something  we,  here,  utterly  fail  to  comprehend.  This  oil, 
known  here  as  'Export  oil,'  is  literally  refuse,  as  it  is  what 
is  left  after  the  good  illuminating  oil  has  been  refined  out  of 
petroleum.  As  has  been  shown  by  Government  investiga- 
tions here,  notably  by  the  New  York  Legislative  Committee 
which  in  1879  investigated  the  Oil  Trust,  forty  per  cent,  of 
the  illuminating  fluids  obtained  from  crude  petroleum  is  of 
this  inferior  sort.  It  is  known  as  '  export  oil '  because  there 
is  not  one  American  city  or  State  -which  will  permit  its  sale. 
It  is  as  explosive  in  a  hot  room  or  on  a  hot  day  as  dynamite. 
It  is  a  matter  of  vital  importance  that  a  market  be  found 
for  it  somewhere.  Hence,  being  prevented  by  law  from 
selling  it  in  America,  where  its  dangerous  character  is  known 
by  every  one,  the  Oil  Trust  ships  it  to  England,  where  no 
one  but  the  experts  know  what  it  is — and  the  experts, 
knowing  it,  favour,  for  some  mysterious  reason,  its  un- 
restricted sale.  It  is  often  said  that  the  fully  exploited 
scandal  of  the  corruptions  and  oppressions  worked  by  the 
Oil  Trust  in  America  throws  a  dreadful  light  upon  our 
political  and  commercial  conditions.  But  the  Oil  Trust 
has  never  yet  been  able  to  do  in  America  what  it  does  in 
England — with  the  help  of  English  experts — viz.,  scatter 
death  through  the  homes  of  the  people  by  the  sale  of  refuse 
oil.  It  does  this  in  England,  at  a  cost  of  a  life  a  day  of  man, 
woman,  or  child,  not  by  the  tolerance,  but  by  the  explicit 
and  uttered  permission  of  the  British  Government,  acting 
upon  expert  and  knightly  advice.  What  sort  of  'light' 
that  throws  upon  the  '  political  and  commercial  conditions ' 


Appendix  341 

of  Great  Britain  is  a  question  often  asked  among  us.  The 
American  press,  daily  as  well  as  weekly,  cosmopolitan  as 
well  as  provincial,  has  exposed  from  the  beginning,  and  is 
still  exposing,  the  encroachment  of  the  Oil  Trust  and  other 
trusts  upon  the  liberties  and  prosperity  of  the  people.  With 
the  honourable  exceptions  of  the  Chemical  Trade  Journal 
and  Food  and  Sanitation,  I  have  never  seen  an  English 
weekly  that  touched  this  question  in  its  editorial  columns, 
and  never  an  English  daily.  Even  the  Socialist  papers 
are  mute  about  this  sacrifice  of  English  life — one  a  day — 
on  the  altar  of  the  greed  of  a  foreign  invader,  though  they 
are  searching  every  field  of  industry  for  illustrations  of 
'capitalistic  greed.' 

"  The  only  two  arguments  that  are  advanced  to  defend  the 
sale  of  this  refuse  American  oil  in  England  are  an  insult  to 
the  common-sense  of  your  people,  but  they  illustrate  per- 
fectly the  cynical  contempt  of  the  monopolists  for  the 
intelligence  of  the  people. 

"The  first  argument  is,  that  the  demand  that  the  Flash 
Test  be  raised,  so  that  only  safe  oil  shall  be  sold,  is  simply  a 
scheme  of  the  Scotch  refiners  to  get  'protection'  against 
American  competition.  Knowing  that  'protection'  is  the 
most  unpopular  word  in  Great  Britain,  our  Oil  Trust,  with 
characteristic  cunning,  seeks  to  fasten  it  on  this  effort  to 
protect  British  lives  against  its  deadly  product.  But  how 
singular!  The  great  Oil  Trust,  which  boasts  in  one  breath 
that  it  makes  the  best  oil  at  the  cheapest  price,  whines  in 
the  next  breath  that  to  compel  it  to  sell  safe  oil  is  '  protec- 
tion' for  its  competitors,  and  discrimination  against  itself! 

"The other  argument  is  that  'the  lamps  are  at  fault,  not 
the  oil.'  If  the  English  people  are  using  bad  lamps,  is  not 
that  all  the  more  reason  for  allowing  only  such  oil  to  be  sold 
as  will  be  safe  in  such  lamps?  That  bad  oil  should  be 
licensed  because  bad  lamps  are  in  use  is  certainly  exquisite 
nonsense,  and  yet  that  is  what  the  arguments  of  some  of 
your  experts  boil  down  to. 

"The  Flash  Test  of  their  wits,  not  to  say  consciences, 


342  Appendix 

should  be  raised  as  well  as  that  of  this  refuse  oil  they  are 
defending. 

"Yours,  etc., 

"A  STUDENT  OF  THE  OIL  TRUST. 
"  NEW  YORK,  Sept.  8,  1896." 


Volume  I.,  page  256.  Platform  of  the  People's  Party, 
Chicago,  February,  1895.  Written  by  Henry  D.  Lloyd. 

"We  adhere  to  the  Omaha  Platform  one  and  indivisible. 

"  We  renew  the  agreement  made  at  the  Springfield  Con- 
ference and  ratified  by  the  Uhlich  Hall  convention  which  in 
the  last  campaign  united  the  reform  elements  of  Chicago 
under  the  banner  of  the  People's  Party. 

"  We  hold  that  municipal  politics  should  turn  upon  muni- 
cipal issues  alone,  and  we  invite  the  citizens  of  Chicago 
regardless  of  partisan  affiliations  in  national  elections  to 
join  with  us  to  make  Chicago  a  free  city — free  of  dirt, 
boodle,  and  monopoly,  free  to  use  the  common  powers  for 
the  common  good, — and  free  to  fit  itself  for  its  future  place 
at  the  head  of  the  cities  of  the  world. 

"To  this  end  we  pledge  our  candidates  for  city  officers,  if 
elected,  to  prepare  for  submission  to  the  legislature  and  to 
labour  for  the  passage  of  bills  to  give  the  city  of  Chicago 
the  powers  it  now  lacks  to  buy,  build,  lease,  and  operate, 
when  the  people  so  elect,  public  works  for  public  needs, 
including: 

"  i.     Heat,  light,  power,  and  health. 

"2.  Telephones,  telegraphs,  pneumatic  tubes,  and  other 
means  of  communication. 

"  3.  Transportation  and  rapid  transit,  especially  a  termi- 
nal loop  to  connect  all  the  railroads,  elevated,  suburban,  and 
trunkline,  with  each  other,  and  with  the  centre  of  the  city. 

"4.  Docks,  wharves,  markets,  and  such  similar  facilities 
as  the  people  decide  to  be  needed  for  developing  the  com- 
mercial supremacy  of  their  city. 

"5.     Employment  for  the  unemployed. 


Appendix  343 

"  6.     Abolition  of  the  slums. 

"7.  Any  general  service  which  the  people  find  to  have 
become  a  monopoly,  or  which  they  judge  would  be  better 
done  if  administered  by  the  public  for  the  public  good. 

"These  powers  are  in  successful  operation,  some  in  one  and 
some  in  another  of  the  leading  cities  of  this  country  and 
Europe,  to  their  great  pecuniary  and  moral  advantage. 
Chicago  can  do  what  any  other  city,  or  all  other  cities,  can 
do. 

"  Without  equal  powers,  our  city  cannot  hold  its  own,  and 
we  demand  therefore  that  the  legislature  give  Chicago  the 
right  of  local  option,  home  rule,  and  self-government  in  these 
matters  vital  to  its  growth  in  population,  industry,  and 
civilisation." 


Volume  I.,  page  272.  The  Winnetka  ordinance  was  de- 
scribed in  the  Chicago  Daily  News,  September  29,  1902, 
by  F.  E.  Herdman,  then  President  of  the  Village: 

"Any  ordinance  granting  or  creating  any  franchise  or 
franchises  or  valuable  rights  or  providing  for  the  issue  of 
bonds  payable  out  of  the  general  funds  of  the  village  other 
than  the  issue  of  bonds  for  the  payment  or  retirement  of 
existing  bonds  must  be  submitted  to  the  legal  voters  of  the 
village  prior  to  its  passage.  No  ordinance  can  come  before 
the  council  for  passage  until  five  days  after  it  has  been 
posted  conspicuously.  If  prior  to  the  expiration  of  the  five 
days  a  petition,  signed  by  at  least  fifty  of  the  legal  voters, 
is  presented  to  the  village  council  requesting  that  the  ordi- 
nance be  submitted  to  the  vote  of  the  people,  then  it  be- 
comes the  duty  of  the  council  to  submit  the  ordinance  as 
requested. 

"  If  the  vote  shall  consist  of  the  majority  of  the  registered 
voters  at  the  last  village  election  then  it  becomes  the  duty 
of  the  council  to  abide  by  the  decision  thereby  expressed. 
The  manner  of  referring  any  ordinance  to  the  citizens  unless 
otherwise  requested  by  petition  signed  by  at  least  fifty  of 


344  Appendix 

the  legal  voters  of  the  village  is  as  follows:  A  printed  copy 
of  the  ordinance  is  mailed  by  the  village  clerk  to  each 
registered  voter  of  the  village,  with  a  numbered  blank  on 
which  the  voter  can  register  his  vote  over  his  signature. 
This  ballot  must  be  filed  with  the  village  clerk  within  five 
days  after  having  been  mailed,  but  the  seals  are  broken  and 
the  result  declared  only  in  open  council  at  its  next  meet- 
ing. ..." 

After  the  discussion  at  the  Town  Meeting,  the  consensus 
of  opinion  is  resolved  into  a  document  known  as  "The 
Sense  of  the  Meeting,"  which  is  sent  to  the  Village  Trustees. 

"MR.  JOHN  MERRILIES, 
"  Village  Clerk: 

"  I  beg  to  give  you  formal  advice  that  at  a  regularly 
called  session  of  the  Winnetka  Town  Meeting,  held  Friday 
evening,  Jan.  i3th,  1905,  the  following  resolution  moved 
by  Mr.  C.  C.  Arnold  was  unanimously  adopted: 

''Resolved:  That  it  is  the  sense  of  this  meeting,  that 
the  Village  Council  proceed  to  the  procurement  for  the 
Village  of  a  Municipal  Gas  Plant,  as  soon  as  they  shall 
find  it  practicable.' 

"Trusting  that  this  will  receive  your  attention, 
"  I  remain,  yours  truly, 

"S.  BOWLES  KING, 
"Secretary,  Town  Meeting." 


Volume  II.,  page  103: 

"I  found  surprisingly  little  co-operation  in  New  Zealand 
or  Australia  outside  of  the  dairy  business,  and  very  little 
interest  in  it.  That  would  be  a  grand  field  for  propa- 
ganda. The  fact  is  the  whole  labour  situation  in  Austral- 
asia appeared  to  me  to  be  very  weak.  The  working  men 
are  poorly  organised;  their  labour  parties  have  really  but 
little  other  power  than  that  which  is  given  to  them  by  the 
moral  sovereignty  of  the  ideas  which  they  represent.  The 


Appendix  345 

reform  energy  of  the  working  people  as  a  mass  seems  to 
have  passed  into  the  labour  legislation  of  the  various  colo- 
nies, and  one  might  almost  say  had  been  dissipated  by 
doing  so.  The  trades  unionists  of  Australasia  have  really 
never  recovered  from  their  crushing  defeats  in  their  great 
strikes  of  the  early  'QO'S,  and  they  have  not  yet  learned  to 
betake  themselves  to  the  methods  of  relief  and  progress 
offered  by  co-operation.  I  found  that  the  men  listened 
eagerly,  whenever  I  had  the  opportunity  of  addressing 
them,  to  everything  that  could  be  said  about  co-operation, 
but  I  saw  little  or  no  signs  of  a  disposition  on  their  part  to 
attempt  organisation  on  those  lines.  They  need  a  Vivian, 
a  Blandford,  and  a  Plunkett — every  country  does." 
(Henry  D.  Lloyd  in  Labour  Copartnership,  October,  1899.) 


Volume  II.,  page  125.  Moritz  Pinner  came  to  America 
from  Germany  after  the  revolution  of  1848.  Carrying  his 
love  of  freedom  into  the  anti-slavery  movement,  he  organ- 
ised the  28th  New  York  regiment  of  German  army  veterans, 
and  later  as  acting  commissary  of  General  Kearny's  brigade, 
invented  the  ambulance  kitchen,  an  idea  adopted  long  after- 
ward by  the  army.  He  was  a  lifelong  friend  of  Wendell 
Phillips,  and  like  him  carried  his  emancipating  enthusiasm 
into  the  labour  movement.  Although  Mr.  Pinner  never 
met  Mr.  Lloyd,  he  manifested  toward  him  an  adoration 
seemingly  akin  to  that  which  he  felt  for  Wendell  Phillips. 


Volume  II.,  page  127.  One  of  Mr.  Lloyd's  notable 
utterances  against  war  occurs  in  an  editorial  in  Boyce's 
Weekly,  May  27, 1903,  which  concludes: 

"  So  strong  is  our  position,  and  so  sure  our  predominance 
that  if  in  earnest  we  can  bring  about  world  peace  by  either 
one  of  two  opposite  policies:  By  disarming,  by  ourselves, 
and  proclaiming  the  boycott  of  all  peoples  that  will  not 
pledge  themselves  to  disarmament  and  arbitration,  or  by 


346  Appendix 

the  threat  of  complete  and  democratic  militarisation  of  all 
our  inhabitants  and  all  our  resources. 

"Nothing  is  needed  to  put  an  end  to  war  but  that  we 
should  come  to  be  in  earnest.  It  will  not  be  so  stopped 
because  we  are  not  in  earnest.  Let  us  be  honest  humbugs 
if  we  must  be  humbugs,  and  acknowledge  that  we  are  not  in 
earnest. " 


Volume  II.,  page  308 — Memorial  resolutions. 

A  few  organisations  passed  resolutions, — the  Boston 
Authors  Club,  the  Chicago  Literary  Club,  River  Forest  Club 
of  Illinois,  Village  Council  of  Winnetka,  Woman's  Suffrage 
League  of  Little  Compton,  Rhode  Island,  Chicago  Single 
Tax  Club,  United  Brotherhood  of  Carpenters  and  Joiners  of 
America,  Local  Union  No.  I  of  Chicago,  Wholesale  Grocers' 
Employees  Union,  Local  9906  of  Chicago,  United  Mine 
Workers  of  America,  and  the  New  Zealand  House  of 
Representatives. 

"In  the  House  of  Representatives  for  New  Zealand,  in 
the  Session  on  November  si,  1903,  the  Right  Honourable 
Richard  J.  Seddon,  Prime  Minister,  and  Minister  of  Labour, 
spoke  as  follows: 

" '  I  would  like  to  say  that  a  certain  occurrence  has  taken 
place,  and  I  deem  it  to  be  my  duty,  as  Minister  of  Labour, 
to  pay  respect  to  the  memory  of  one  who  has  done  good  and 
faithful  service  in  endeavouring  to  bring  employers  and  em- 
ployees together  in  America,  and  to  further  industrial  peace. 
Honourable  members  will  have  noticed  that  Mr.  Henry 
Demarest  Lloyd,  who  has  been  a  visitor  to  this  colony,  has 
recently  passed  away  at  a  fairly  ripe  age,  revered  and  re- 
spected by  all  who  knew  him.  Whilst  he  was  visiting  this 
colony  he  made  full  inquiry  into  the  working  of  our  labour 
laws,  and  he  was  so  struck  with  the  industrial  peace  existing 
here  that  he  has  faithfully  laboured  ever  since  his  return  to 
America  to  bring  about  a  similar  state  of  affairs  in  that 
great  continent.  Only  two  days  before  he  died  he  sent  to  the 


•^*. 

THE  PEOPLE 


OF  TOLEDO  TO  THE 
PEOPLE  OF  CHICAGO. 


Follow  our  example  —  go  to  your  City  Council  Meet- 
ing  —  Save  your  streets.  Let  your  watchword  be 
"  No  more  franchises,  no  more  public  plunder."  J 

.-».<*-V^ 


A  TRACTION  EMERGENCY  CALL 

ADOPTED     BY     THE    CHICAGO     FEDERATION    OF    LABOR- 
SEPTEMBER    20.    1903. 


Resolutions  Outlining  Traction  Program, 
Adopted  by  Federation  of  Labor,  Sun- 
day, Sept.  20,  1903  • 
Whereas,      The    Council    reassembles 
September  28th,  the  truce  between  the 
City  and  the  Traction  Company  expires 
November  3Oth  and  the  Ttaction  future 
ot  Chicago  with  all  that  implies  for  it- 
self and  the  country  at  large  will  be  set- 
tled in  those  eight  weeks ;  and 

Whereas,  Ordinances  for  that  settle- 
ment have  been  drafted  by  the  Council 
Committee  on  Transportation  and  sub- 
mitted to  the  Street  Car  Companies  but 
not  made  known  to  the  public ;  and 

Whereas,  It  is  believed  that  the  Coun- 
cil Committee  proposes  to  give  to  the 
Companies  a  straight  grant  running  20 
years  with  no  reservation  of  the  right  of 
Municipal  Ownership  at  any  intermedi- 
ate period; 

Whereas,  There  is  no  sign  that  the 
Mueller  Enabling  Act  for  Municipal 
Ownership  is  to  be  submitted  to  the  peo- 
ple for  adoption  until  after  this  grant 
has  been  made;  this  means  practically 
the  abandonment  of  the  law  and  of  the 
movement  for  Municipal  Ownership  for 
almost  another  generation. 

Resoh-cd,  That  the  Chicago  Federa- 
tion of  Labor  urge  its  delegates  and 
members  of  their  respective  Local 
Unions  to  proceed  in  a  body  Monday 
evening,  September  2&tli,  to  call  on  the 
Mayor  and  Council  at  their  regular 
meeting  to  present  the  following  de- 
mands : 

I.  That  the  Ordinances  which  have 
been  prepared  and  made  known  to  the 
Street  Railroad  Companies  for  their  ap- 
proval be  made  known  also  to  the  pub- 
lic, the  principal  party  in  interest,  so 
that  it  may  have  time  to  study  them  and 
may  be  qualified  to  decide  intelligently 
upon  approval  or  rejection  when  this  is 
submitted  to  the  vote  of  the  people,  as 
the  city  administration  is  pledged  to  do. 
,  2.  That  the  Mueller  Enabling  Law 
for  Municipal  Ownership  of  the  street 
railroads  be  submitted  to  the  people  for 
adoption,  and  that  when  adopted  the 
powers  it  gives  be  at  once  put  into  op- 
eration, particularly  that  of  eminent  do- 
main. We  call  upon  the  city,  authorities 
to  proceed  as  soon  as  this  power  is  given 
by  the  adoption  of  the  Mueller  law  to 
acquire  possession  of  the  entire  street 
railroad  system  of  Chicago  by  the  pro- 
cess of  condemnation — that  ancient,  con- 
stitutional, familiar  and  irresistible  in- 
strument of  the  people's  sovereignty. 

3.  That    pending    this    adoption    the 
Council   refrain   from   making  any  new 
grants    to   the    Companies,    which    with 
their  "acceptance"  would  bind  the  city 
as   "sacred   contracts"   and   create  new 
lots  of   "vested   rights"   to   plague   our 
future. 

4.  That  pending  the  consummation  of 
the  plan  for   Municipal    Ownership  the 
Council    in    any    future    dealings    with 
these  or  any  other  companies  shall  issue 
LICENSES  ONLY  revocable  at  the  pleasure 


of  the  Council,  giving  the  Companies  the 
terminable  tenure  under  which  the 
Street  Car  Service  of  Boston  and  Wash- 
ington is  successfully  maintained. 

5.  That  the  Council  leave  for  adjudi- 
cation  the   question   what  grants   have 
or  have  not  expired,  which  has  no  re- 
lation to  the"  practical  matters  of  trans- 
portation, and  betake  itself  at  once  to 
the  work  demanded  by  public  necessity 
and  public  opinion — the  immediate  im- 
provement of  the  Traction  Service. 

6.  That  for  this  purpose  the  Council 
permanently  employ  a  Traction  expert 
to  make  plans  ready  for  immediate  im- 
provement of  service  in  cars,  routes,  mo- 
tive  power,  transfers,   fares,   etc.,   such 
plan  to  be  in  harmony  with  and  a  part 
of  the  permanent  plan  for  Chicago  Trac- 
tion, already  prepared  under  the  orders 
ot  the  City  Council  by  Mr.  Bion  J.  Ar- 
nold and  to  be  consistent  with  that  own- 
ership by  the  city  for  which  the  people 
have  voted  by  142,826  to  27,998. 

7.  That  the  Council  under  the  ample 
police  powers  it  possesses  to  protect  pub- 
lic interests  and  to  "regulate  the  use  of 
streets"  order  the  Companies  to  provide 
without  delay  all  improvements  of  serv- 
ice required  by  the  needs  of   the   Pub- 
lic, and  that  its  Traction  expert  be  em- 
ployed to  superintend  the  proper  execu- 
tion of  its  orders. 

8.  That  it  also  be  made  a  part  of  the 
duties   of   this   Traction  expert   to   see 
that    the    Companies    give    the    Public 
now   the  full   benefit  of  the  equipment 
they     already  possess     and   that     they 
keep  their  cars  in  such  constant  use  as 
the  public  need   requires,  during  other 
than  the  rush  hours  and  on  Sundays  and 
at  night,  instead  of  running  their  cars, 
as  is  now  their  custom,  to  the  barns  to 
save  the  hire  of  conductors  and  motor- 
men.  ^ 

9.  That  as  part  of  this  immediate  im- 
provement special  counsel  be  employed 
to  ascertain  violations  of  existing  laws 
and  disregard  of  existing  obligations,  and 
to  enforce  the  one  and  punish  the  other 
by   such   proceedings    in   the   civil   and 
criminal  courts  as  may  be  called  for. 

10.  That    the    Council   order    the   law 
department  to  push  to  a  final  adjudica- 
tion all   disputed  questions  between  the 
City   and  the   Companies,   including  the 
validity  of  the  99  years'  act  by  which  a 
corrupt   legislature  attempted   unconsti- 
tutionally  to   deprive    Chicago    of     its 
fundamental  rights  of  Home  Rule  for 
a  century  and  to  impair  the  obligations 
of  contracts  already  made  by  the  city 
with  the  Companies. 

The  Chicago  Municipal  Ownership 
Delegate  Convention  invites  the  Co-op- 
eration of  delegates,  from  the  Trades 
Unions  and  other  organizations  of  the 
city,  in  waiting  upon  the  Mayor  and  the 
Council. 

All  delegates  are  to  assemble  at  the 
council  chamber  on  the  fourth  floor  of 
the  City  Hall  at  7 :3O— the  hour  at  which 
the  Council  assembles. 


The  Traction  Emergency  Call  Written  by  Mr.  Lloyd. 


Appendix  347 

Secretary  of  the  Labour  Department  his  latest  article,  en- 
titled "The  Abolition  of  Poverty,"  and  anyone  who  reads 
it  will  agree  with  me  that  the  mind  that  conceived  that  as  a 
last  effort  was  the  mind  of  a  man  of  genius  and  of  one  who 
loved  his  fellow-men.  Amongst  other  things,  it  deals  with 
the  old-age  pensions  in  New  Zealand.  No  visitor  ever  re- 
paid our  hospitality  more  generously  than  Mr.  Lloyd.  In 
books,  in  pamphlets,  in  public  speeches,  before  President 
Roosevelt's  Commission  on  the  anthracite  coal  miners' 
strike,  he  never  ceased  pointing  to  New  Zealand  as  a  country 
that  might  be  copied  to  advantage  in  respect  to  industrial 
questions.  His  two  books,  A  Country  Without  Strikes  and 
Newest  England,  were  magnificent  tributes,  and  caused  New 
Zealand  to  be  in  this  respect  widely  known,  for  they  have 
served  to  bring  this  country  more  prominently  before  Eng- 
land and  the  rest  of  the  world.  America  has  suffered  a 
great  loss,  because  he  devoted  his  life  in  endeavouring  to 
bring  about  industrial  peace.  Personally,  I  regret  very  much 
the  loss  of  a  co-worker  in  the  cause  of  democracy,  and  of 
one  who  has  been  engaged  in  an  honest  endeavour  to  uplift 
the  masses,  and  to  bring  home  to  the  world  and  those 
engaged  in  industrial  pursuits — employer  and  employee — 
that  they  could  only  accomplish  true  peace  and  progress 
by  working  harmoniously  together.  He  was  not  for  strikes ; 
with  him  it  was  reason  against  physical  force,  and  I  think 
he  has  done  more  than  any  man  in  that  vast  continent 
of  America  to  bring  about  a  peaceful  solution  of  the 
difficulties  existing  there.  In  conclusion,  I  desire  to 
say,  that  the  works  of  the  gentleman  alluded  to  will 
live  after  :him.  His  place  will  be  hard  to  fill.  He  has 
shown  a  noble  example  by  his  life  and  strenuous 
efforts  in  the  cause  of  the  toiler,  and  his  sacrifice  will 
not  have  been  in  vain,  the  seed  sown  has  been  placed 
in  good  soil  and  will  bear  fruit  tenfold.  As  Minister  of 
Labour,  I  deem  it  to  be  my  duty  to  bring  this  matter  under 
the  notice  of  honourable  members  when  dealing  with  the 
last  labour  legislation  of.  this  rather  memorable  session. 


348  Appendix 

By  me  the  memory  of  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd  will  ever  be 
held  dear. ' 

"  Motion  agreed  to. " 

Concerning  this  motion,  Sir  Robert  Stout  wrote: 

"...  This  is  certainly  a  unique  thing;  except  in  case  of 
Royalties,  or  in  case  of  one  who  had  been  in  a  leading 
position  in  the  Government  of  the  Empire,  no  such  state- 
ment has  heretofore  been  made. " 

The  resolutions  of  the  Wholesale  Grocers'  Employees 
Union  said  in  part: 

"WHEREAS,  it  has  pleased  Him  who  knoweth  and  doeth 
all  things  for  the  best,  to  call  from  among  us,  our  dearly 
beloved  friend,  Henry  D.  Lloyd,  be  it,  therefore, 

"  RESOLVED,  that  in  the  death  of  Henry  D.  Lloyd,  the 
world  has  lost  an  able,  true,  and  noble  man,  one  who  gave 
his  life  for  the  welfare  of  the  people,  one  who  at  all  times 
worked  to  help  the  labouring  people  because  he  loved  them, 
and  who  until  his  death  laboured  unceasingly  for  the  people, 
striving  to  get  for  them  what  rightfully  belongs  to  them." 

The  miners'  resolutions  said : 

"IN  MEMORIAM,  HENRY  DEMAREST  LLOYD 

"WHEREAS:  In  the  observance  and  practice  followed  by 
all  classes  who  form  part  of  and  strictly  adhere  to  the  true 
principles  of  Trade  Unionism,  there  is  no  time  when 
intellectual  thought  and  education  derived  from  the  teach- 
ings of  these  principles  can  be  more  prominently  discerned 
than  when  one  of  its  educators  and  advocates  has  been 
called  from  this  earth; 

"AND  WHEREAS  :  For  many  years,  and  since  the  inception 
and  adoption  of  these  principles  by  the  labouring  people  of 
this  country,  it  is  clearly  noticeable  that  in  their  efforts  to, 


Appendix  349 

by  conservative  action,  improve  their  condition,  they  were 
very  much  alone,  but,  as  in  all  movements  from  which  good 
results  are  attained,  certain  features  of  the  conditions  do, 
of  themselves,  silently  appeal  to  those  who  are  removed  from 
the  sphere  of  the  humble  surroundings  of  the  employed, 
both  in  their  homes  and  while  at  work,  and;  when  these 
silent  appeals  invade  luxurious  surroundings  and  create  an 
interest  in  the  necessary  welfare  of  the  labouring  people, 
results  of  goodness  have  at  all  times  been  attained  and  such 
results  always  magnify  the  manly; 

"AND  WHEREAS:  Of  the  manly  who  can  be  magnified 
there  is  one,  who  born  on  the  luxurious  side  and  provided 
with  all  the  requirements,  more  than  necessary  to  live  a  life 
of  princely  splendour,  yet  for  all  that,  who  put  upon  our 
side  the  power  which  wealth  gave  him,  and,  in  using  the 
wisdom  born  in  him,  his  every  influence  created  a  life  princi- 
ple to  assist  and  elevate  to  a  better  condition  the  common 
labouring  people.  That  man  was  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd. 

"AND  WHEREAS:  In  his  loyalty  to  man  it  is  remembered 
that  during  the  troubles  of  the  Anthracite  Miners  in  1902, 
the  same  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd  was  one  of  the  first  to 
come  forward  and  render  service  to  their  cause,  and,  as  a 
result  of  such  service,  it  is  fully  known  that  victory  was  much 
hastened  by  the  noble  assistance  of  such  a  voluntary  cham- 
pion, who  when  victory  was  won  refused  to  even  consider 
the  question  of  compensation,  therefore  be  it  and  it  is 
hereby, 

"RESOLVED:  That  we,  the  Delegates  to  the  Fourth 
Annual  Convention  of  District  No.  9  of  the  United  Mine 
Workers  of  America  assembled  in  Shenandoah,  Penna., 
with  much  regret  have  learned  of  the  death  of  our  staunch 
friend  and  champion,  Henry  Demarest  Lloyd;  and,  while 
we  recognise  that  he  also  was  the  champion  of  labour  and 
human  rights  everywhere,  it  is  known  to  us  particularly, 
that  in  loss  of  such  a  champion  the  Anthracite  Employees 
all  acknowledge  that  the  passing  away  of  so  loyal  and  true 
a  man  is  to  them  a  loss,  such  that  language  cannot  describe ; 


350  Appendix 

his  every  deed  was  a  deed  of  meekness,  and  no  people 
record  this  loss  more  than  do  the  Delegates  to  this  Conven- 
tion, and  we  hereby  extend  to  the  Widow  of  our  Champion 
our  heartfelt  sympathy  in  her  great  affliction;  and  be  it 
further, 

"RESOLVED:  That  the  Charters  of  the  District  and 
Local  Unions,  on  and  from  the  ist  of  January  next,  be 
draped  for  a  period  of  thirty  days,  that  an  engrossed  copy 
of  these  Resolutions  be  forwarded  to  the  Widow,  one  copy 
be  published  in  the  United  Mine  Workers'  Journal  and 
that  the  same  be  also  entered  upon  the  Records  of  this 
Convention. 

''In  behalf  of  the  District  Convention. 
"DISTRICT  OFFICERS 

"JOHN  FAHY,  President,  Pottsville,  Pa. 
"P.  P.  PULASKI,  Vice-President,  Mt.  Carmel,  Pa. 
"G.  W.  HARTLEIN,  Secretary,  Shamokin,  Pa. 
"M.  G.  YODER,  Treasurer,  Shamokin,  Pa. 
"MILES  DOUGHERTY,  Shamokin,  Pa.- 
"National  Executive  Board. 

"EXECUTIVE  BOARD 

"JOHN  LINDSEY,  Excelsior,  Pa. 
"THOMAS  J.  RICHARDS,  Minersville,  Pa. 
"TERRENCE  GINLEY,  Girardville,  Pa. 
"EDWARD  HARRIS,  Lykens,  Pa. 
"MARIN  POWASIS,  Shenandoah,  Pa. 
"JAMES  CLARK,  Ashland,  Pa." 


INDEX 


Abbot,  Willis  J.,  i.  226;  ii.  272, 303 

Abbott,  Lyman,  i.  213 

Abolition  movement,  relation  to 
labour  movement,  i.  120 

Adams,  Charles  Francis,  i.  27,  31 

Addams,  Jane,  i.  173;  ii.  20,  84, 
217,  223,  301,  302,  308 

Adversity  necessary  to  arouse 
American  people,  ii.  126,  159, 
1 68 

Agriculture,  co-operative,  in  Eng- 
land, ii.  69,  70;  in  Ireland,  ii.  72; 
important  aspect  of,  ii.  77;  L.'s 
faith  in,  ii.  78 

Albertson,  Ralph,  ii.  65 

Alger,  W.  A.,  Secretary  of  War, 
arraignment  of,  ii.  131 

Algerism,  evils  of,  attributed  to 
McKinley,  ii.  132 

Allen,    Catherine,  Shaker,   ii.  55 

Allen,  John,  of  Brook  Farm,  ii.  55 

Allen  bill  to  franchise  traction 
companies  of  Chicago,  ii.  282 

Altgeld,  John  P.,  Governor  of 
Illinois,  pardons  the  Anarchists, 
i.  103;  L.'s  regard  for  and  de- 
fence of,  i.  103;  ii.  242;  persecu- 
tion against,  i.  104;  his  opinion 
of  Anarchists'  trial,  i.  106;  let- 
ter to  L.  on  The  New  Con- 
science, i.  115;  protest  against 
federal  troops  during  Pullman 
strike,  i.  144;  provision  for 
sending  State  troops,  i.  147, 151 ; 
faithfulness  to  official  obliga- 
tion, i.  149;  property  interests 
in  Chicago,  i.  150;  absurdity  of 
calling  him  Anarchist,  i.  151 ; 
L's.  last  letter  from,  ii.  1 13 

Altruistic  Review,  i.  187,  194 

Altrurian,  ii.  59 


American  Book  Company  vs. 
Kingdom  Publishing  Company, 
ii.  143 

American  Federation  of  Labor, 
succeeds  Knights  of  Labor  and 
agitates  for  eight-hour  day, 
i.  83;  L.  addresses,  "The 
Safety  of  the  Future  Lies  in 
Organised  Labour,"  i.  143;  its 
part  in  the  formation  of  the 
People's  Party,  i.  239;  rejects 
government  ownership  plank,  i. 
244;  organised  farmers  and 
the,  i.  246;  L.  urges  it  to 
adopt  radical  programme,  i.  246; 
advocates  initiative  and  refer- 
endum, i.  266;  endorses  Win- 
netka  system,  i.  274 

American  people.indifference  of,  to 
crimes  of  monopoly,  i.  224;  prob- 
lems of  co-operation  among,  ii. 
90;  Utopia  possible  among,  ii. 
96;  keen  on  social  and  economic 
problems,  ii.  98;  do  not  desire 
arbitration,  ii.  115;  L.'s  faith  in, 
ii.  184,  324 

American  Railway  Union,  declares 
sympathetic  strike  and  boycott, 
i.  144;  heroic  attitude,  i.  152;  re- 
organised into  the  social  democ- 
racy, 1897,  ii.  6 1 

American  revolution,  ii.  267 

Amnesty  Association,  i.  103 

Anarchism,  its  attitude  toward 
use  of  force,  i.  88;  L.'s  estimate 
of,  i.  96,  294;  L.  writes  on  "An- 
archism in  America"  for  En- 
cyclopcBdia  Britannica,  i.  106 

Anarchists,  Chicago  tragedy,  1886, 
i.  82,  83;  conspicuous  in  eight- 
hour  movement,  i.  84;  police 
attitude  toward,  and  arrest,  i. 
84;  Black  undertakes  the  de- 


365 


366 


Index 


Anarchists— -Continued 

fence  of,  i.  85;  L.  attends  trial, 
i.  86;  sentenced  to  hang,  i.  86; 
movement  for  clemency  and 
commutation,  i.  86;  Salter — 
Lloyd  delegation  presents  peti- 
tion for  commutation,  i.  93;  ii. 
330;  jury  prejudiced  against,  i. 
94;  their  courage,  i.  95;  hang- 
ing and  funeral,  i.  98;  attitude 
of  Chicago  Bar  Association 
toward,  i.  99,  100;  Amnesty 
Association  to  secure  pardon 
formed,  1890,  i.  103;  Goy.  Alt- 
geld  pardons  those  in  prison,  i. 
103;  Altgeld's  opinion  of  case,  i. 
1 06;  L.'s  interpretation  of  trag- 
edy, i.  107,  108 

Anarchists  as  immigrants,  i.  156 

Andrews,  E.  Benjamin,  i.  143, 188, 
219;  ii.  46 

Annexation  of  Philippines,  Catho- 
lic Church  a  factor  in,  ii.  134 

Anseele,  "greatest  man  in  Eu- 
rope," ii.  166 

Anthon,  Charles,  i.  14 

Anthracite  coal  strike,  1902,  con- 
dition of  miners,  ii.  187;  refusal 
of  companies  to  arbitrate,  ii. 
1 88;  seventy  per  cent,  of  miners 
non-English  speaking,  ii.  189; 
cost  of,  ii.  189;  special  session 
suggested  to  end,  ii.  192;  opera- 
tors' ultimatum,  ii.  192;  three 
quarters  of  million  idle,  ii.  193; 
cost  of  coal  during,  ii.  194; 
President  Roosevelt  rails  con- 
ference on,  ii.  195;  Pennsylvania 
troops  ordered  to  anthracite  re- 
gions, ii.  196;  strikers  peaceful, 
ii.  196;  mass  meetings  about,  ii. 
196;  operators  remain  obstinate, 
ii.  196;  a  ruse  to  force  bitumin- 
ous coal  into  wider  use,  ii.  197; 
greatest  in  history,  ii.  200,  203; 
miners  return  to  work,  ii.  201; 
forces  in  combat,  ii.  210;  efforts 
for  conciliation  fail,  ii.  211; 
coal  famine  spreads,  ii.  221; 
coal  barons  surrender,  ii.  233 

Anthracite  Coal  Strike  Commis- 
sion, Roosevelt  appoints,  ii.  198; 
investigating  tour  of,  ii.  206; 
opens  at  Scrantpn,  ii.  219; 
public  interest  in,  ii.  211;  testi- 


mony before,  ii.  210,  214,  223; 
attempt  to  introduce  evidence 
of  monopoly,  ii.  217;  refused 
evidence  of  monopoly,  ii.  219; 
L.'s  plea  before,  ii.  227;  award 
of,  ii.  236 

Anti-monopolists,  strongest  single 
body  in  People's  Party  conven- 
tion, i.  262 

Anti-Trust  Convention,  Inter- 
state, i.  158 

Anti-Trust  law,  L.  called  it  the 
4 '  Anti-Trade  -  Union  law, "  i. 
158;  used  in  suit  to  dissolve 
Standard  Oil  Company,  i.  236; 
federal  government's  impotence 
under,  ii.  148;  coal  corporations 
violate,  ii.  222;  authorises  seiz- 
ure of  unlawful  combinations,  ii. 
243,  249,  251 

Anti-Trust  legislation  insincere 
and  ineffective,  U.  148 

Appeal  to  Reason,  ii.  246,  273 

Arbeiter-Zeitung,  i.  243,  245 

Arbitration,  court  of,  in  New  Zea- 
land, ii.  103;  results  of,  in  New 
Zealand,  ii.  104;  relative  merits 
of  voluntary  and  compulsory, 
ii.  113-116;  but  a  step  in 
social  reconstruction,  ii.  116; 
L.  helps  draft  law  for  Massa- 
chusetts, ii.  116;  plank  on, 
adopted  by  Democratic  Nation- 
al Convention,  1903,  ii.  116;  In- 
dustrial Commission  discusses, 
ii.  116;  compulsory,  deprecated 
by  both  capital  and  labour,  ii. 
114,  116;  international,  to  settle 
Venezuelan  dispute,  ii.  128;  bill 
for  compulsory,  in  Rome,  ii.  165; 
in  coal  strike,  see  Anthracite 
Coal  Strike  Commission 

Archbpld,  John  D.,  his  attack  on 
L.,  i.  225-230 

Argyle,  Duke  of,  i.  135 

Army  camps,  terrible  conditions 
of,  ii.  131 

Atheism,  the  worst,  ii.  14 

Atkinson,  Edward,  i.  24,  31,  34 

Atlantic  Monthly,  published  L.'s 
"Story  of  a  Great  Monopoly" 
in  1881,  i.  59,  61;  his  "Political 
Economy  of  $73,000,000"  in 
1882,  i.  62;  "Australasian  Cure 
for  Coal  Wars, "  ii.  194 


Index 


367 


Australasia,  public  of,  eager  to 
learn  American  conditions,  ii. 
97;  attitude  of,  toward  owner- 
ship of  railroads,  ii.  106;  forms 
of  governmental  industry  in,  ii. 
no 

Australia,  the  initiative  and  refer- 
endum in,  i.  275;  properly 
called  Newest  England,  ii.  97 

Authors  Club  of  Boston,  L.  mem- 
ber of,  i.  141 


B 


Backus,  ,  the  widow  oil 

refiner,  i.  234 

Baer,  George  F.,  his  famous  answer 
to  plea  for  arbitration,  ii.  190; 
Mitchell's  answer  to,  ii.  193;  re- 
sponsible for  failure  of  concilia- 
tion, ii.  213;  selfishness  of,  ii. 
215;  closes  argument  for  coal 
barons,  ii.  232;  impressed  by 
L.'s  speech  for  miners,  ii.  230; 
surrenders  for  coal  barons,  ii. 

233 

Baldwin,  William  H.,  ii.  85 
Ball,  Rebecca  (great-great-grand- 
mother), i.  2 

Bank  of  England,  defects  of,  ii.  26 
Bankers     like    other    owners    of 

machinery  of  industry,  ii.  36 
Banks  and   banking,   devices   to 
remedy   money    stringency,  ii. 
32 ;  importance  of  reform  in,  ii. 

239 

Barclay,  William,  ii.  74 
Barnard,  F.  A.  P.,  i.  14 
Bascom,  John,  i.  207,  226 
Bauer,  Stephan,  of  Basle,  ii.  165, 

1 80 

Baxter,  Judge,  i.  220,  232 
Bebel,  August,  ii.  166,  261 
Beecher,  Henry  Ward,  i.  16,  21 
Belgium,  L.  studies  socialism  and 
co-operation  in,  ii.  165;  Ghent, 
the  union  of  all  social  reformers, 
ii.  166;  people's  movement  of, 
ii.  179;  socialists  of,  ii.  181 
Bellamy,  Edward,  i.  141,  258,  280 
Bemis,  E.  W.,    i.   152,  226,  258; 

ii.  46,  157,  295 
Bentham,  Jeremy,  ii.  322 
Berger,  Victor,  first  socialist  con- 
gressman, i.  280 


Bertholf,  Guiliam,  apostle  of  the 
Dutch  Reformed  Church  in 
America,  i.  5 

Besant,  Annie,  i.  87 

Besant,  Walter,  i.  87 

Black,  William  P.,  defends  An- 
archists, i.  85;  L.  advises  to 
write  history  of  trial,  i.  104 

Black  Farmers'  Conference,  ii.  268 

Black  Friday,  i.  64 

Blackmail,  L.'s  share  in,  insinu- 
ated by  Archbold,  i.  229 

Elaine,  James  G.,  L.'s  feeling 
toward,  i.  73 

Blandford,  Thomas,  ii.  69,  72,  73, 
75,  78,  86 

Bologna,  L.'s  experiences  in,  ii. 

165 
Bonfield,     Captain    of     Chicago 

police,  i.  84,  106 

Bookhver's  Magazine,  ii.  226,  239 
Boston,  L.'s  winter  home  at,  ii. 

162 

Boston  Herald,  L.'s  replies  to 
Gunton's  criticisms  of  Wealth 
Against  Commonwealth," i.  207; 
interviews  L.  on  monopoly  ques- 
tion, i.  283 

Boston  Sunday  Journal,  ii.  250 
Boston   Traveller  publishes   "The 
Great  Coal  Conspiracy,"  i.  158 
Bowles,  Samuel,  i.  223;  ii.  130, 134, 

140,  164,  197,  301 
Boyce's  Weekly,  ii.  221,  239,  249 
Brandeis,  Louis  D.,  ii.  213,  219 
Brinkerhoff,  Roeloff,  i.  34 
Brisbane,  Arthur,  ii.  132 
Bromley,  "Ik"  (Isaac),  i.  34 
Brooke,  Stopford,  i.  87 
Brooks,  John  Graham,  ii.  197 
Bross,   Jessie,    see   Lloyd,    Jessie 

Bross 

Bross,  William,  one  of  founders 
of  Chicago  Free  Press,  i.  44; 
his  interest  in  the  Chicago  Tri- 
bune, i.  44;  Lieut.-Gov.  of 
Illinois,  1865-69,  i.  44;  attitude 
toward  the  Anarchists,  i.  101 
Brotherhood,  labour  organisations 
promote,  i.  119;  L.  consecrates 
himself  to  cause  of,  i.  121; 
principles  of,  emphasised  at 
Winnetka,  i.  276;  in  industry 
and  business,  key-note  to  new 
religion,  ii.  3;  new  impulse 


368 


Index 


B  rotherhood — Continued 

to,  ii.  45;  expressed  in  social 
colonies,  ii.  53;  co-operative 
movements  in  harmony  with,  ii. 
77;  vision  of,  inspired  English 
co-operative  movements,  ii.  86 

Brotherhood  of  the  Co-opera- 
tive Commonwealth,  organised, 
1896,  ii.  60 

Brotherhood  of  the  Kingdom,  ii. 
52 

Brothers'  War,  ii.  268 

Brown,  Ford  Maddox,  i.  87 

Brown,  John,  son  of  the  great 
emancipator,  i.  87 

Brown,  William  Thurston,  ii.  52, 

65 

Bryan,  William  J.,  Democrats 
nominate  as  free-silver  candi- 
date, i.  258;  People's  Party 
captured  for,  i.  262,  263;  his 
attitude  on  public  ownership, 
ii.  272 

Bryant,  William  Cullen,  i.  25,  31, 

34,35 

Bryce,  James,  i.  75,  77  ^ 
Buchanan,  Joseph  R.,  i.    87,   93, 

95 

Burnett,  Henry  L.  Gen.,  U.  S.  Dis- 
trict Attorney,  ii.  213 

Burnham,  Daniel,  i.  164 

Burns,  John,  i.  163;  ii.  79,  80,  168, 
321 

Burroughs,  John,  i.  197 

Burrows,  Herbert,  i.  172 

Business,  modern,  called  piracy, 
theft,  and  lying,  i.  184 


Calhoun,  John  C.,  ii.  147 

Campaign  assessments  undemo- 
cratic, i.  248 

Campaign  committees  of  old 
parties  contain  representatives 
of  same  great  syndicates,  ii. 
267 

Campaign  contributions,  trusts 
make,  to  both  old  parties,  ii. 
126 

Canada,  the  initiative  and  refer- 
endum in,  i.  275 

Capital,  and  capitalists,  tyranny 
of,  i.  115;  conflict  of,  with  the 
people,  i.  119;  relations  with 


labour  bad  in  Chicago,  i.  239; 
act  together  instinctively,  i.  284; 
tactics  of,  ii.  80;  working  men 
have  better  organisation  in 
industry  than,  ii.  85;  disputes  of, 
with  labour,  means  of  settling 
in  New  Zealand,  ii.  104;  depre- 
cates compulsory  arbitration,  ii. 
116;  conspiracy  of,  against  New 
Zealand's  fame,  ii.  121;  of  many 
places  combined  in  Chicago  trac- 
tion fight,  ii.  293 

Capitalism,  system  of,  indicted,  i. 
199;  responsible  for  Spanish 
war  scandals,  ii.  132;  industrial 
organisation  not  best  possible, 
ii.  150;  prevents  best  use  of 
human  energy  and  natural  re- 
sources, ii.  151;  development  of 
international,  ii.  167,  179;  com- 
pels emigration,  ii.  277;  socialism 
means  abolition  of,  ii.  279 

Captains  of  industry,  i.  144 

Carnegie,  Andrew,  i.  143,  144;  ii. 
136 

Carpenters'  strike  in  Chicago, 
1890,  settled  by  L.,  i.  142 

Carter,  Artemus,  i.  267 

Catholic  Church,  its  hand  in  our 
Philippine  policy,  ii.  134 

Cave  Mills,  Tennessee,  site  of 
Ruskin  colony,  ii.  62 

Centralisation,  Democratic  party 
surrenders  to  the  principle  of,  i. 
147;  tendency  of  age,  i.  287 

Chase,  Chief  Justice,  David  Dem- 
arest  Lloyd  as  his  private 
secretary,  i.  20 

Cheapness,  oil  not  made  cheap  by 
Standard  Oil  Company's  meth- 
ods, i.  185;  freedom  and  liberty 
come  before,  i.  290 

Chemical  Trade  Journal,  London, 
i.  204;  ii.  339 

Chicago  Board  of  Trade,  L.'s 
attack  on,  in  "Making  Bread 
Dear, "  i.  66;  courts  of  the  Board 
declared  above  the  law,  i.  68 

Chicago  Chronicle,  ii.  155,  242 

Chicago  Club,  L.  member  of,  i.  141 

Chicago  Common  Council,  mem- 
bers threatened  with  hanging, 
ii.  283;  "reform"  members 
plot  for  monopoly,  ii.  301 

Chicago  Commons,  ii.  308 


Index 


369 


Chicago  Daily  News,  L.'s  loss  of, 
i.  48;  its  prosperity,  i.  49 

Chicago  Federation  of  Labor,  pro- 
tests against  traction  franchises, 
ii.  282;  L.  leader  of,  in  traction 
fight,  ii.  299;  L.'s  last  speech 
given  before,  ii.  302;  votes  to 
demand  municipal  ownership,  ii. 
303;  distributes  L.'s  circular  on 
traction  question,  ii.  309 

Chicago   Free   Press   founded   by 

i  William  Bross  and  John  L. 
Scripps,  i.  44 

Chicago  Herald,  L.'s  letter  to,  con- 
cerning Chicago  Anarchists,  i. 
103;  its  estimate  of  L.  as  labour 
candidate  for  Congress,  i.  119; 
publishes  L.'s  story  of  Spring 
Valley  miners'  lockout,  i.  127 

Chicago  Literary  Club,  L.  one  of 
its  founders,  i.  47;  his  paper, 
"A  Cure  for  Vanderbiltism, ."  i. 

59 

Chicago  Nationalists  Club,  L. 
addresses  on  "The  Union  For 
Ever,"  i.  141 

Chicago  &  North- Western  Rail- 
road, i.  127,  248 

Chicago  Sunday  Lecture  Society, 
L.  one  of  its  organisers,  i.  47; 
and  president,  i.  48 

Chicago  Times,  i.  253 

Chicago  Times-Herald,  ii.  148 

Chicago  traction  companies,  fran- 
chise fight  of,  ii.  281;  demand 
renewal  of  charters,  ii.  283;  L. 
enters  the  fight,  ii.  289,  292; 
Standard  Oil  and  English  capital 
identified  with,  ii.  294;  radicals 
resist  renewal  of  charter,  ii. 
295;  plot  by  "reform  "  common 
council,  ii.  301 ;  L.  issues  "Trac- 
tion Emergency  Call,"  ii.  302; 
allied  with  gas  and  water-works 
syndicates,  ii.  303;  defeat  the 
people's  will  on  municipal 
ownership,  ii.  310 

Chicago  Traction  Question,  pub- 
lished by  Mrs.  Lloyd  after  L.'S 
death,  ii.  309 

Chicago  Tribune,  L.'s  work,  i.  4 1 ;  42 , 
44;  opposes  demonetisation  of  sil- 
ver, i.  50;  editorials  exposing  mo- 
nopolies and  government  land 
grants,  i.  53;  support  of  Elaine 


as  presidential  candidate,  i.  73; 
L.'s  reasons  for  leaving,  in  1885, 
i.  74,  78,  79;  its  attitude  toward 
the  Anarchists  in  1886,  i.  95,  97; 
references,  ii.  116,  127,  173,  285 

Child  labour,  laws  for,  recom- 
mended by  Anthracite  Coal 
Strike  Commission,  ii.  237;  re- 
velation of  conditions  in  Penn- 
sylvania, ii.  241 

China,  socialism  and,  ii.  276 

Chipman,  John,  ii.  65 

Christ,  of  to-day,  ii.  12;  founder 
of  modern  democracy,  ii.  13 ;  an 
illustration  of  humanity,  ii.  13; 
the  old  and  new,  contrasted,  ii.  13 

Christian  Commonweal  thin  Georg- 
ia, ii.  65 

Christian  Corporation,  ii.  63 

Christian  Union  (TheOutlook) ,  i.  69 

Christianity,  people  hungering  for 
message  of  applied,  i.  214; 
limitations  as  basis  for  social 
co-operation,  ii.  65;  socialism 
to  supersede,  ii.  255;  municipal 
co-operation  is  applied  Christi- 
anity, ii.  291 

Church,  voice  of  new  conscience 
not  heard  within,  i.  113;  L.'s 
forecast  of  the  future,  i.  114;  L. 
criticises  church,  not  religion,  i. 
1 1 6;  his  reasons  for  not  joining, 
i.  116;  unpractical,  i.  117;  is 
wrong  in  its  economics,  i.  118; 
feels  social  awakening,  ii.  46 

Cincinnati  convention  of  Liberal 
Republicans  in  1872,  the  "Mis- 
souri Call,"  i.  26;  contest 
between  Horace  Greeley  and  the 
Free  Traders,  i.  28;  Greeley 
wins  the  nomination,  i.  31 

Cincinnati  convention  of  the 
People's  Party,  May,  1891,  i. 
238 

Cincinnati  Daily  Post,  its  attitude 
toward  monopoly,  i.  200 

Cities  of  2Oth  century,  ii.  161 

Citizenship,  L.'s,  i.  268 

Civil  service  examinations  fore- 
shadow education  for  democ- 
racy, i.  296 

Clarke,  Abigail,  i.  178 

Clarke,  William,  i.  75,  76,  102,  304 

Class  consciousness,  L.'s  view  of, 
n.  258 


370 


Index 


Clearing  house,  use  of,  to  expand 
credit  system,  ii.  30;  currency 
plan,  ii.  33 

Cleveland,  Grover,  President, 
sends  federal  troops  to  Chicago, 
i.  144;  L.  asks  him  not  to  sign 
Extradition  Treaty  with  Russia, 
i.  157;  bond  issue  scandal  of  his 
administration,  ii.  28;  L.'s  ar- 
raignment of,  ii.  236,  242 

Clover  Club  of  Philadelphia,  ii. 
225 

Coal  and  Iron  Police  sent  to 
anthracite  region,  ii.  189,  194 

"Coal  Conspiracy,  The  Great," 
L.'s  address,  i.  158 

Coal  corporations,  the  anthracite 
coal  strike,  ii.  189-233;  not 
merchants  but  speculators,  ii. 
248 

Coal  mines,  public  ownership  of, 
in  Australasia,  ii.  no;  nation- 
alisation of,  advocated,  ii.  158, 
191,  244,  247,249 

Coal  strikes,  see  Anthracite  coal 
strike;  Spring  Valley,  lockout 

Cobden,  Richard,  i.  292 

Coinage  of  commodities  and  of 
land,  ii.  32 

Coit,  Stanton,  ii.  180 

Cold-storage  warehouses,  pub- 
licly owned  in  Australasia,  ii. 
no 

Collyer,  Robert,  i.  45,  47 

Colonies,  ii.  52-57 

Colorado  Co-operative  Company, 
ii.  58 

Colwell,  Stephen,  ii.  20,  25 

Combination,  a  remedy  for  the 
workers,  i.  80;  cannot  be  pre- 
vented, i.  290;  see  also  Mono- 
poly 

Coming  Nation,  i.  284;  ii.  59,  62,  68 

Comings,  S.  H.,  ii.  65 

Commercialism,  militant,  democ- 
racy will  follow,  ii.  1 80 

Commodities,  coinage  of,  sug- 
gested, ii.  32 ;  money  potency  in 
all,  ii.  36 

Common  law  sufficient  to  deal 
with  monopoly,  i.  283 

Commons,  John  R.,  i.  212;  ii.  271 

Commonwealth,  woman  to  help 
emancipate,  i.  195 

Community  of  interests,  evidence 


of,  between  railroads  and  coal 
corporations,  ii.  218 

Compensation  instead  of  confisca- 
tion, i.  285;  ii.  158 

Competition,  outdone  by  combi- 
nation, i.  63;  Jay  Gould's  career 
illustrative  of,  i.  64;  attitude  of 
the  orthodox  political  econo- 
mist, i.  62,  65;  must  abolish  the 
"cannibals"  of  competition,  i. 
114;  not  a  remedy  for  social  ills, 
i.  287;  good  under  certain  con- 
ditions, i.  298 

Compulsory  Arbitration  Act,  of 
New  Zealand,  ii.  no,  in,  112; 
a  model  for  many  states,  ii.  1 16; 
L.  defends,  ii.  120 

Compulsory  investigation  of 
strikes,  recommended  by  An- 
thracite Coal  Strike  Commis- 
sion, ii.  237 

Conciliation  Board  in  every  New 
Zealand  district  court,  ii.  104 

Condemnation  of  mines  and  rail- 
roads, Detroit  citizens  call  for, 
ii.  196 

Conferences  of  L.  and  social  work- 
ers at  B.  Fay  Mills'  house, 
Fort  Edward,  1896,  1897,  ii.  47 

Confiscation,  compensation  in- 
stead of,  i.  285;  see  also  Forfeit- 
ure 

Congress,  L.  nominated  for,  by 
Union  Labour  Party,  i.  119;  his 
defeat,  i.  120;  Democrats  ask 
L.  to  be  candidate  for,  i.  120; 
appoints  Industrial  Commis- 
sion, 1898,  i.  225;  People's  Party 
representatives  in,  i.  239;  L. 
nominated  for,  by  People's 
Party,  i.  247;  L.  declines  nomi- 
nation for,  by  Democrats,  i.  248 

Conspiracy,  millionaires  versus 
the  working  men,  i.  132;  in  big 
business,  ii.  185 

Constitution,  U.  S.,  gives  right  to 
bear  arms,  i.  88;  defiance  of,  by 
court,  i.  104 

Contini,  Charles,  Italian  co-oper- 
ator, ii.  184 

Contract,  right  of,  i.  99;  doctrine 
of,  has  two  sides,  i.  282 

Contrat  Social,  compared  to 
Wealth  Against  Commonwealth, 


Index 


37i 


Cooley,  T.  M.,  i.  232 

Coolidge,  Susan,  i.  102,  167 

Cooper  Union,  Sunday  opening 
of  reading  room,  i.  22 ;  L.  speaks 
at,  ii.  177,  227 

Co-operation,  L.'s  opinion  of,  i. 
55;  ii.  81,  93;  L.'s  study  of,  in 
Great  Britain,  ii.  68-75;  as  de- 
scribed in  Labour  Co-partner- 
ship, ii.  75-77,  84;  importance 
of  agricultural,  in  England,  ii. 
77;  relation  between,  and  soc- 
ialism, ii.  88,  163;  difficulties 
of,  in  America,  ii.  89-91,  243, 
256;  commercialism  enters,  ii. 
92;  in  Belgium,  ii.  92,  166;  in 
Australasia,  ii.  107,  no;  L.'s 
material  for  second  book  on,  ii. 
J63,  179;  as  escape  from  capital- 
ism, ii.  184 

Co-operative  Association  of  Amer- 
ica, ii.  66 

Co-operative  commonwealth,  i. 
256;  cannot  be  made  put  of  non- 
co-operative  people,  ii.  89 

Co-operative  Conference  at  Chi- 
cago, 1897,  ii.  68 

Co-operative  landlords,  ii.  166, 
169 

Corporation,  typical  form  of  Amer- 
ican industry,  i.  287;  as  absentee 
landlords  in  Australasia,  ii.  107 

Country  Without  Strikes,  its  re- 
ception and  effect,  ii.  112,  116, 
117,  165,  194 

Courts,  L.  advocates  federal  courts 
for  trade  disputes,  i.  68;  feared 
by  trade-unions,  ii.  114;  state 
and  federal,  declare  legislation 
for  labour  unconstitutional,  ii. 
149 

Cowles,  James  L.,  i.  286;  ii.  142 

Co-Workers  Fraternity,  section 
of  Co-operative  Association  of 
America,  ii.  66 

Cox,  Jacob  D.,  i.  24,  34,  35 

Coxey,  "General,"  i.  239,  259 

Crane,  Walter,  i.  87,  172 

Creation,  watchword  of  new  era, 
ii.  4 

Credit,  sacrificed  to  specie  de- 
mand, ii.  26;  democratic  expan- 
sion of,  ii.  29;  real  means  of 
exchange,  ii.  30;  exchange  of, 
the  next  step  in  banking,  ii.  31; 


social  results  from  broadening 
basis  of,  ii.  33 
Creelman,  James,  ii.  135 
Crosby,  Ernest  H.,  ii.  49,  65 
Cuba,  L.  predicted  talcing  of,  ii. 

127 

Cullom,  Shelby  M.,  i.  232 
Currency,  should  not  be  redeem- 
able in  gold  only,  ii.  20;  people 
must  master  principles  of,  ii.  22; 
forced   contraction   of,    ii.    28; 
clearing-house  plan  of,  ii.  33;  a 
new  currency,  ii.  34;  reform  of, 
ii.  239;  New  Zealand's,  keeps  her 
dependent   on  English  capital, 
ii.  123;  see  also  Money  question 
Curtis,  Theodore,  ii.  90 
Cyclopedia  of  Political  Science,  L.'s 
article     on      "The     Clearing- 
House, "  i.  51 

Cyclopedia  of  Social  Reform,  its 
estimate  of  L.'s  "Great  Coal 
Conspiracy,"  i.  158 


Daily  Chronicle,  London,  i.  203 

Dante's  statement  of  democracy, 
ii.  181 

Darrow,  Clarence,  L.'s  letters  to, 
i.  145,  254;  chairman  campaign 
meeting  of  People's  Party, 
Chicago,  i.  249;  with  L.  at 
St.  Louis  convention  of  People's 
Party,  ii.  262;  selected  as 
counsel  for  anthracite  strikers, 
ii.  204,  205;  associated  with  L. 
in  conduct  of  miners'  case,  ii. 
211-233;  joint  reception  to, 
with  L.  at  Chicago,  by  organ- 
ised labour,  after  coal  strike,  ii. 
235;  speaks  at  L.'s  funeral,  ii. 
308 

Davidson,  Thomas,  i.  52,  120 

Davitt,  Michael,  ii.  216 

Deans,  James,  ii.  72,  74 

Debs,  Eugene  V., President  Ameri- 
can Railway  Union,  arrested, 
refused  trial  by  Federal  ,Su- 
prerhe  Court,  i.  145;  welcome 
to,  and  L.'s  speech,  on  release 
from  Woodstock  jail,  i.  153, 154; 
ii.  236;  suggested  as  candidate 
for  President  by  People's  Party, 
refuses,  i.  259-263;  L.'s  letters 


372 


Index 


Debs — Continued 

to,  i.  280;  as  national  organiser 
of  Brotherhood  of  Co-operative 
Commonwealth,  ii.  61 ;  L.  con- 
sults, about  joining  socialists, 
ii.  271 

Deems,  Charles  F.,  his  Church  of 
the  Strangers,  i.  16 

Deerfield,  Mass.,  summer  school 
at,  ii.  52 

Deliverer,  great  social,  to  come,  i. 

293 

Demarest,  David,  Huguenot,  set- 
tled in  New  Jersey  in  1663,  i.  4 

Demarest,  David  (grandfather), 
i.  1,5,8,12 

Demarest,  Henry  (uncle),  i.  n 

Demarest,  Maria  Christie,  see 
Lloyd,  Maria  Christie  Demarest 

Democracy,  i.  99;  in  Winnetka,  i. 
276;  is  public  opinion  plus  law, 
i.  294;  new  education  must  fit 
people  for,  i.  296;  to  create  its 
God,  ii.  6;  Christ,  founder  of 
modern,  ii.  13;  currency  ques- 
tion involved  in  problem  of,  ii. 
43;  religious  foundation  for,  ii. 
51 ;  social  democracy  of  America, 
ii.  6 1 ;  characteristics  of  the 
industrial,  illustrated  by  co- 
operative movements,  ii.  76; 
industrial  democracy  cannot  be 
successful  without  training  in  co- 
operation, ii.  88;  study  of,  and 
results,  in  Australasia,  ii.  95, 
97,  106,  107,  118;  attitude  of, 
toward  dependent  peoples,  ii. 
133;  institutions  of,  threatened 
by  wealth,  ii.  144;  stern  and 
good-natured  people  needed  for, 
ii.  159;  in  Switzerland,  ii.  163, 
177,  239,  254;  key-word  of  new 
era,  ii.  181;  Dante's  statement 
of,  ii.  181;  socialism  and  de- 
mocracy identical,  ii.  255;  whole 
question  of,  involved  in  Chi- 
cago traction  fight,  ii.  293,  297; 
a  messiah  of,  to  comeii.  325 

Democratic  Party,  L.  declines 
nominations  for  Congress  in 
1888  and  1894,  i.  120,  248;  sur- 
renders doctrine  of  States  rights, 
i.  147;  missed  political  opportu- 
nity, i.  249;  National  Conven- 
tion adopts  arbitration  plank, 


ii.  116;  L.  has  no  faith  in,  ii. 
272 

Demonetisation,  see  Gold;  Silver 
Depew,  Chauncey  M.,  ii.  148 
Devlin,  C.  J.,  i.  138 
De  Witt,  George  G.,  i.  14 
Dexter,  Wirt,  i.  99,  100 
Diggs,  Annie  L.,  ii.  58,  63 
Direct  legislation,  Shibley's  work 
for,  i.  274;  attitude  of  English 
Fabians    toward,    i.    277;     dis- 
cussed at  Lake  George  Confer- 
ence,   ii.    49;    progress    of,    in 
America,  ii.  180;  L.'s  book  on, 
in  Switzerland,  ii.  295;  see  also 
Initiative  and  referendum ;  Win- 
netka system 

Disfranchisement,  ii.  269,  270 
Dix,  John  A.,  i.  35 
Dodd,  S.  C.  T.,  i.  211,  212 
Dodge,  James,  ii.  232 

Dorsheimer, ,  i.  34 

Dowd,  Quincy  L.,  i.  116,  267,  269, 

278 

Dubois,  W.  E.  B.,  ii.  268 
Duncanson,  Robert,  ii.  74 
Dunne,  Edward  F.,  ii.  308 
Dutch  Reformed  Church  in  Amer- 
ica, i.  5;  ii.  2 


Eberhard,  Chief  of    Police,    Chi- 
cago, i.  1 06 
Ecob,  James  H.,  i.  213 
Education,  the  new,  i.  296 
Educational  Congress,  at  World's 
Fair,  L.'s  letter  concerning,  to 
L.  J.  Gage,  i.  161 
Eggleston,  W.  G.,  i.  301 ;  ii.  162 
Eight-hour  day,  labour's  agitation 
for,  i.  83;  Anarchists  conspicu- 
ous in  movement  for,  i.  84;  An- 
archists' effect  on,  i.  99;  would 
bring  prosperity,  i.  142;  see  also 
Labour 

Eliot,  Charles  W.,  letter  of,  de- 
clining L.'s  endowment  sugges- 
tion, ii.  175;  declares  scabs 
heroes,  ii.  207;  L's  retort  to,  ii. 
207;  L.  meets,  ii.  239 
Eliot,  George,  L.'s  review  of 
Middlemarch  and  letter  from 
G.  H.  Lewes,  i.  42;  L.'s  appre- 
ciation of,  i.  75 


Index 


373 


Elkins    amendment,    passed    by 

Congress,    1902,  ineffective,  ii. 

149 
Ely,  Richard  T.,  i.  121,  207,  212, 

257,  258,  263,  280;  ii.  22,  46, 

127,  271 
Emancipation,       "the   American 

idea,"  i.  283;  compensated,  i. 

287;  of  the  working  class,  i.  301 ; 

ii.  71,  263;  of  society,  ii.  263 
Emerson,  R.  W.,  i.  232,  235,  269, 

283,  289,  292,  296,  300;  ii.  3,  8, 

158,  253,  312,  313,  314,  325 
Emery,  Lewis,  i.  226 
Emigration,  capitalism  creates,  ii. 

277 
Engel,  George,  Anarchist,  i.  84,  95, 

98 

Engels,  Frederic,  i.  135 
English    Co-operative    Wholesale 

Society,  ii.  92 

Equality  colony  in  State  of  Wash- 
ington fails,  ii.  61 
Ethical  Culture  Society,  Chicago, 

Salter    speaks    on    behalf     of 

Anarchists,  i.  87;  L.'s  address 

on  the  "New  Conscience,"  i. 

112;    L.'s    remarks    on    social 

evolution,  ii.  155 
Everests,  the,  i.  221 
Every  Man  His  Own  Voter,  L.'s 

manual  of  election  laws,  i.  23 
Evolution,  watchword  of  passing 

era,    ii.    4;    about    to    unlock 

mystery  of  dead  souls,  ii.   10; 

revolution  a  part  of  process  of, 

«•  155 

Evolution  of  Modern  Capitalism,  i. 
209 

Exchange,  credit  real  means  of, 
ii.  30 

Exchanges,  produce,  L.'s  attack 
on,  in  "  Making  Bread  Dear," 
i.65 

Expansion,  a  craze,  ii.  134;  of 
American  trade,  ii.  167;  may 
bring  Americanisation  of  world, 
ii.  181 ;  see  also  Imperialism 

Express  companies,  and  "  postal 
reform,"  ii.  141 

Expropriation,  compensation  in 
case  of,  ii.  156;  see  also  For- 
feiture 

Extradition,  ratification  of  Rus- 
sian treaty  protested,  i.  157 


Fabian  Society,  i.  115;  attitude 
of,  toward  direct  legislation,  i. 
277;  L.'s  sympathy  with,  i. 

303 

Failure  of  the  people,  i.  202 

Fairhope,  Ala.,  single  tax  colony, 
i.  298 

Faneuil  Hall,  ii.  225 

Farmers  and  workmen  in  van  of 
social  progress,  i.  119,  141; 
demand  reform  in  transporta- 
tion and  currency,  i.  238;  join 
socialist  party,  ii.  258 

Farming,  centralisation  of,  ii.  256 

Favor,  Otis  S.,  i.  94 

Federal  government — see  Govern- 
ment, federal 

Federal  Steel  Company,  ii.  136 

Fellowship  of  the  New  Life,  L. 
reads  "The  New  Conscience" 
before,  i.  115 

Field,  David  Dudley,  i.  24 

Field,  Eugene,  i.  278 

Field,  Marshall,  i.  90;  ii.  134 

Fielden,  Samuel,  Anarchist,  i.  84, 

88,95 

Fifth  Avenue  Hotel  Conference 
of  Free  Traders,  June,  1872,  i. 

.3.2-35 

Filipinos,  subjugation  of,  ii.   133 

Findlay,  Attorney -General  of 
New  Zealand,  ii.  120 

Fischer,  Adolph,  anarchist,  i.  84, 
88, 90, 95,  98 

Fish,  Nicholas,  i.  14 

Fish,  Stuyvesant,  ii.  85 

Fisher,  Walter  L.,  ii.  296 

Foe  to  American  Schools,  publica- 
tion of,  basis  for  suit  by  Ameri- 
can Book  Company,  ii.  143 

Force,  use  of,  to  secure  better 
social  order,  i.  87,  112;  strikes 
not  cured  by,  i.  145;  violence  un- 
justly charged  to  strikers,  i.  152 ; 
no  place  in  political  conventions 
for  advocates  of,  i.  243 

Forfeiture,  of  corporate  and  public 
service  franchises,  for  non-use 
and  mis-use,  advocated,  i.  282, 
286;  ii.  296;  of  licenses  and 
leases  obtained  by  fraud,  advo- 
cated, ii.  157;  of  railroad  fran- 
chises and  coal  property,  ii. 


374 


Index 


245,    249,    251,    252;    see    also 

Confiscation;  Expropriation 
Forum,  i.  216 

France,  oil  trust  control  in,  i.  203 
Franchise,    forfeitability    of,    for 

non-user  and  mis-user,  i.  282; 

traction    companies'    fight     in 

Chicago,  ii.  281 

Franklin,  Benjamin,  i.  285;  ii.  32 
Free  love,  L.'s  definition  of,  i.  76 
Free  silver,  see  Silver 
Free  Soil  Party,  i.  264 
Free  Soilers  in  Kansas,  socialist 

colony  in  State  of  Washington 

compared  to,  ii.  61 
Free  trade  incomplete  solution  of 

social  problems,  i.  301;  see  also 

Tariff 
Free    Trade    League    formed    in 

1868,  i.  24 — 26;  see  also  Liberal 

Republican  movement 
Free  Trader,  L.'s  work  on,  i.  25 
Free  will,  doctrine  completed,  ii.  5 
Freight  rates,  secret,  in  New  Eng- 
land and  Canada,  i.  227;  in  New 

Zealand,  ii.  106;  see  also  Rebates 
French,  Daniel,  ii.  322 
French  Revolution,  ii.   155,  265; 

prevented  French    emigration, 

ii.  277 
Frothingham,  O.  B.,  i.  24 


Gage,  Lyman  J.,  i.  87,  89;  ii.  148 
Garrison,  William   Lloyd,  i.   24, 

287;  ii.  179 
Gary,  Joseph  E.,  judge  at  Chicago 

Anarchists'  trial,  i.  86,  91,  95, 

99,  106 

Gas  monopoly,  Chicago,  i.  159 
Gas     Workers     Union,     officials 

quoted,  ii.  80 
Gates,  George  A.,  i.  213,  303,  306; 

ii-  47,  143 

Gaylord,  Winfield,  i.  196 

George,  Henry,  i.  24,  55,  115,  301 

Germany,  oil  trust  control  in,  i. 
203;  L.  meets  leaders  of  social 
reform  in,  ii.  166;  organisation 
of  socialists,  ii.  177;  people's 
banks  and  farmers'  sales  asso- 
ciations of,  ii.  179 

Ghent,  united  movement  of  social 
reformers  in,  ii.  166 


Gibbons,  Cardinal,  ii.  135 

Gibson,  George  Howard,  ii.  63,  65 

Gillett,  Frederick  H.,  i.  281,  289 

Gilman,  Charlotte  Perkins,  i.  172 

Gilman,  Theodore,  ii.  33,  265 

Gladden,  Washington,  195,  200, 
202,  212,  224,  226 

Gladstone,  W.  E.,  ii.  21,  84,  169 

Gobin,  General,  issues  "shoot  to 
kill"  orders  during  anthracite 
strike,  ii.  190 

God,  L.'s  ideas  of,  ii.  4 — 7 

Godkin,  E.  L.,  i.  24,  231 

Godwin,  Parke,  i.  41 

Goff,  Mehitable  (great-grand- 
mother), i.  2 

Goffe,  English  Regicide,  L.  descen- 
dant of,  i.  2 

Gold,  not  a  measure  of  value,  ii. 
24;  a  symbol,  ii.  25;  all  fluctua- 
tions of,  affect  all  values,  ii.  26; 
demonetisation  of ,  ii.  29;  holders 
of,  have  right  to  coinage,  ii.  35 

Gold  basis,  L.'s  editorials  in 
Chicago  Tribune,  i.  51 ;  no  longer 
needed,  ii.  25;  the  parent  of 
panics,  ii.  27 

"Gold  bug,"  editorials  in  Chicago 
Tribune,  ii.  20;  big  gold  bugs 
get  Cleveland  bond  issue,  ii.  28 

Gompers,  Samuel,  says  Chica- 
go bomb-throwing  killed  eight- 
hour  movement,  i.  99;  L.'s 
letter  to,  concerning  Homestead 
strike,  i.  143;  estimates  number 
of  unemployed  in  America,  i. 
239;  L.  urges,  to  help  People's 
Party,  i.  246;  timidity  of, 
toward  co-operative  movement, 
ii.  86;  opposes  compulsory  arbi- 
tration, ii.  115;  L.  consults 
before  joining  socialists,  ii.  271 

Goodrich,  H.  W.,  Watch  House,  i. 
1 80 

Gould,  Jay,  i.  64,  217 

Government,  only  a  social  tool,  i. 
294;  representative  government 
insufficient,  ii.  293 

Government,  federal,  suit  to  dis- 
solve Standard  Oil  Co.;  i.  236; 
a  money  power  i.  246;  bond 
issues  of,  1893-95,  a  manipula- 
tion by  financial  class,  ii.  28; 
powerlessness  before  trusts,  ii. 
148;  must  be  recovered  by 


Index 


375 


Government — Continued 

people,  ii.  155;  suggested  pur- 
chase of  monopolies  by,  ii.  157; 
operation  of  coal  mines  advo- 
cated, ii.  223 

Government  ownership,  of  rail- 
roads and  coal  mines,  advocated, 
i.  158,  ii.  191,  239,  244;  de- 
manded by  People's  Party,  i. 
239,  244;  of  telegraph  in  New 
Zealand,  ii.  99;  of  railroads  in 
New  Zealand,  ii.  106;  of  coal 
mines  in  Australasia,  ii.  no;  as 
preventive  of  trust  formation, 
ii.  121 
Grand  Rapids,  Mich.,  L.  addresses 

furniture  workers  at,  i.  142 
Grant,  Ulysses  S.,  i.  35;  ii.  8 
Grants,  as  contracts  to  be  kept  by 

corporations,  i.  282 
Gray,    Judge,  Chairman  of    An- 
thracite   Coal    Strike  Commis- 
sion, ii.  209,  217,  220,  223,  227, 
233.  242 

Greaves,  Charles,  Shaker,  ii.  54 
Greeley,  Frederick,  i.  171;  ii.  308 
Greeley,  Horace,  i.  25,  27,  31,  36 
Green      Acre,     Maine,     summer 

school,  ii.  52 

Greenback  movement,  ii.  20,  23 
Greening,  Edward  Owen,  ii.  82 
Greulich,  leader  of  Swiss  working 

men,  ii.  166 

Grey,  Sir  George,  ii.  135 
Grey,  T.  Grattan,  ii.  121 
Griggs,  John,  United  States  At- 
torney-General, ii.  148 
Grinnell,  Julius  S.,  State's  attor- 
ney at  Anarchists'  trial,  i.  86, 90, 

9L  95 

Groesbeck,  William  S.,  i.  36 
Grosscup,  Peter  S.,  Judge,  ii.  298, 

303 

Grosvenor,  William  M.,  i.  24,  25 
Guernsey  Market  House  Plan  of 

Payments,  ii.  20,  32,  122 
Gunton,  George,  his  criticism  of 
Wealth   Against  Commonwealth, 
i.    206-211;  falsifies  and    mis- 
represents, i.  208-211;  ii.  147 


H 


Hale,  Edward  Everett,  i.  178,  196, 
212,  278;  ii.  119,  139,  160,  179 


Haley,  Margaret,  ii.  310 

Hall,  Thomas,  i.  212 

Halle',  Ernst  von,  i.  288,  289 

Halstead,  Robert,  ii.  82 

Hampden,  ii.  266 

Hampton,  Va.,  school  at,  ii.  173 

Hancock,  John,  ii.  261 

Hardenberg, ,  ii.  261 

Hardie,  Keir,  i.  162 

Harper  &  Brothers,  published 
Wealth  Against  Commonwealth, 
i.  190,  223;  supervised  L.'s  re- 
ply to  Gunton,  i.  207 

Harrison,  Mayor  "Harrison  the 
First, "  Chicago,  i.  84,  106 

Harrison,  Mayor  of  Chicago,  1902, 
ii.  284,  303 

Harvard  University,  class  day,  ii. 
in;  L.  considers  endowing  ii. 

173 

Hay,  John,  i.  278 
Haymarket  Square  meeting,  Chi- 
cago, 1886,  action  of  police  and 
the    tragedy   at,    i.    84;    Capt. 
Black's  opinion  upon,  i.    105; 
Gov.    Altgeld's    references    to 
and  opinions  upon,  i.  106,  107 
Heaton,  Henniker,  ii.  140 
Heaven,  L.'s  ideas  of,  ii.  5,  9 
Henrotin,  Ellen  M.,  i.  102 
Hepburn  Committee,  i.  216,  218, 

229 

Herdman,  F.  E.,  i.  271 
Herford,  Brooke,  i.  171 
Herron,  George  D.,  i.  213;  ii.  65, 

271 

Hewitt,  Abram  S.,  i.  22 
Hillis,  Newell  Dwight,  ii.  207 
History  of  the  Standard  Oil  Com- 
pany, by  Ida  M.  Tarbell,  i.  233 

Hoadley, ,  Judge,  i.  24 

Hoan,  David,  i.  85 

Hobson,  John  A.,  i.  208,  304;  ii. 

323 

Holmes,  Lizzie  M.,  i.  85 
Holmes,  W.  T.,  i.  85 
Holyoake,   George  Jacob,   i.    55; 

"•  73.  87,  92,  163 
Homestead  strike,  L.'s  opinions  of, 

i-  143 

Hooker,  George,  ii.  270 
Hopkins, ,  Mayor  of  Chicago, 

i.  152 

Hourwich,  Isaac,  ii.  204 
Howe,  Robert  H.,  i.  253 


376 


Index 


Howells,  William  Dean,  publishes 
L.'s  "Story  of  a  Great  Monop- 
oly. "  i-  59'  87,  IO°;  his  talk  with 
Mrs.  Lloyd,  i.  72 ;  his  assistance 
in  finding  a  publisher  for  Wealth 
Against  Commonwealth,  i.  190; 
his  interest  in  the  book,  i.  197; 
L.'s  estimate  of,  i.  281 ;  ii.  314 

Hubbard,  Gilbert,  i.  267 

Hubbard  Woods,  i.  269 

Hull  House,  Chicago,  described 
by  L.,  ii.  300 

Humphrey  bills,  on  Chicago  trac- 
tion situation,  ii.  282 

Huntington,  Henry,  i.  43,  59;  ii. 
134,  3i6 

Huntington,  Father  J.  C.,  i.  87 

Hutchinson,  Charles  L.,  i.  67 


lies,  George,  i.  71,  206 

Illinois  Federation  of  Labor  con- 
ference, i.  241,  256;  adopts 
government  ownership  plank,  i. 
244 

Illinois  Free  Trade  League,  L.  one 
of  founders,  i.  47 

Illinois  National  Bank,  ii.  30 

Illinois  State  Reformatory,  ii.  85 

Immigration,  155-157 

Immortality,  L.'s  ideas,  ii.  5,  9, 
10 

Impending  Crisis,  Helper's,  Wealth 
Against  Commonwealth  com- 
pared to,  i.  197 

Imperialism,  American,  ii.  127, 
133,  181,  184;  see  also  Expan- 
sion 

Independent,  symposium  on  trusts, 
1897,  ii.  125 

Independent  oil  refiners,  their 
interest  in  Wealth  Against  Com- 
monwealth, i.  193,  199;  their 
discouragement,  i.  236 

Independent  voter,  dead-beat  of 
politics,  ii.  275 

Individual  initiative  consistent 
with  public  welfare,  i.  298 

Individualism,  conflict  with  social- 
ism only  apparent,  i.  293 

Industrial  Brotherhood,  L.  joins, 
ii.  66 

Industrial  Commission,  appointed 


by  Congress,  1898,  i.  225;  L. 
submits  affidavit  to,  i.  226,  227; 
discusses  arbitration,  ii.  116 

Industrial  revolution,  see  Revolu- 
tion, industrial 

Ingersoll,  Robert  G.,  i.  87 

Initiative  and  referendum,  advis- 
ory, won  in  Winnetka,  i.  266, 
270—276;  L.'s  view  of,  i.  277, 
278;  used  in  Chicago  traction 
struggle,  ii.  281,  283,  295,  310 

Injunction,  in  Pullman  strike,  i. 
144;  ii.  114;  arbitration  substi- 
tuted for,  ii.  236 

Internation,  the  international  na- 
tion, i.  119 

International  capitalism,  develop- 
ment of,  ii.  167,  179 

International  Co-operative  Alli- 
ance at  Delft,  ii.  68,  92 

Inter-oceanic  canal,  issue  of  cur- 
rency for,  ii.  41 

Interstate  Anti-Trust  Convention, 
1893,  i.  158 

Interstate  Commerce  Commis- 
sion, findings  against  oil  trust, 
i.  213,  218,  229,  231 ;  records  on 
rebates,  i.  235;  its  efforts  nulli- 
fied, ii.  147,  149;  inquiries  into 
coal  combination,  ii.  244 

Interstate  Commerce  Law,  used 
against  strikers,  i.  144;  non- 
effect  of,  ii.  142 

Investors'  Review,  London,  i.  203 ; 
ii.  28 

Iowa  College,  L.'s  commencement 
address  at,  ii.  47 

Ireland,  co-operative  movements 
in,  ii.  72 ;  what  socialism  might 
do  for,  ii.  277 

Irrigation  by  government,  ii.  no 

Irvine,  Alexander,  i.  183 

Italy,  oil  trust  control  in,  i.  203 


Jackson,  Andrew,  ii.  147 
Jackson,  Helen  Hunt,  i.  64,  102 
James,  William,  ii.  318 
Jefferson,  Thomas,  i.  88,  292;  ii. 

224 
Jeffersonian  democracy,  Jefferson 

would  repudiate,  ii.  267 
Jenks,  J.  W.,  i.  213,  227;  ii.  50 


Index 


377 


Jevons,  W.  Stanley,  i.  51 ;  ii.  20 
John    Crerar    Library,    Chicago, 

received  part  of  L.'s  library,  i. 

178 
Johns   Hopkins   University,   uses 

Wealth  against   Commonwealth, 

i.  197 

Johnson,  Andrew,  i.  40 
Johnson,  Tom  L.,  ii.  198,  308 
Jones,  Benjamin,  ii.  82 
Jones,  Jenkin  Lloyd,  i.  267;  ii.  308 
Jones,  Samuel M.,  "Golden  Rule, " 

i.  78;  ii.  45,  143,  158,  198,  265, 

308;    credits    L.    with    making 

him  a  golden  rule  man,  ii.  316 
Judges  hold   key  to  capital  and 

labour  troubles,  i.  285 


K 


Keenan,  Henry  F.,  i.  37,  39,  46 

Kelley,  Florence,  i.  172 

Kelley,  James  P.,  ii.  65 

Kettering,  ii.  72,  85 

Kingdom  Publishing  Company 
sued  by  American  Book  Com- 
pany, h.  143 

Knights  of  Labor,  beginnings  of, 
i.  18;  growth  of,  i.  63 

Koopman,  H.  L.,  ii.  157 

Kropotkin,  Peter,  ii.  272 

Kurhaus  banquet  at  Scheven- 
ingen,  L.  speaks  at,  ii.  74 


Labour,  American  movement, 
1869,  i.  18;  eight-hour  agitation, 
i.  83,  84;  effect  of  Anarchists' 
hanging  upon  movement,  i.  99; 
L.'s  sympathy  for,  i.  112,  113, 
141;  forming  brotherhood  of 
man,  i.  119,  143,  146;  seeks  rep- 
resentation in  legislatures,  1.119; 
working  men  entitled  to  full 
product  of  labour,  i.  142;  safety 
of  ^future  in  organised  labour, 
i.  143;  ii.  266;  effect  of  immi- 
gration upon,  i.  155;  organised 
labour  turns  to  third  party,  i. 
238;  relations  with  capital  in 
Chicago,  i.  239;  movement 
creating  a  new  social  force,  love, 
ii.  ii ;  called  universal  religion, 
ii.  1 8;  movement  "getting  re- 


ligion," ii.  46;  question  not 
solved  by  profit-sharing  schemes, 
ii.  80;  New  Zealand's  method  of 
settling  disputes  with  capital,  ii. 
104;  deprecates  compulsory  ar- 
bitration, ii.  1 16;  greatest  strike 
of,  in  history,  ii.  203,  210;  L. 
argues  for  voice  of,  in  manage- 
ment of  industry,  ii.  230;  recep- 
tion of,  to  L.,  Darrow,  and 
Mitchell,  ii.  235;  liberty  of,  ii. 
256;  all  society  involved  in 
movement,  ii.  260-263;  labour 
and  negro  disfranchisement,  ii. 
270;  organised  labour  protests 
against  Chicago  traction  mono- 
poly, ii.  282;  see  also  Non-union 
labour 

Labour  Congress  at  the  World's 
Fair,  Chicago,  i.  162 

Labour  copartnership,  L.'s  study 
of,  i.  68-81;  growth  of,  ii.  116 

Labour  Copartnership,  issued  in 
1898,  ii.  75;  purpose  of  book,  ii. 
76;  its  effect,  ii.  81;  shows  best 
results  in  voluntary  organisa- 
tion, ii.  94 

Labour  Copartnership  Associa- 
tion of  England,  ii.  69 

Labour  unions,  capital's  attempted 
destruction  of  miners',  at  Spring 
Valley,  111.,  i.  123-137;  L.  works 
among,  i.  141;  preparing  new 
brotherhood,  i.  143;  Interstate 
Commerce  Law  used  against, 
i.  144;  Anti-Trust  Law  used 
against,  i.  158;  British,  demand 
government  ownership,  i.  244; 
adopt  Winnetka  system,  i.  274; 
fight  for  initiative  and  referen- 
dum in  Massachusetts,  i.  278; 
fail  to  take  up  labour  copartner- 
ship movement,  ii.  87;  attitude 
of,  toward  compulsory  arbitra- 
tion, ii.  114;  English  employers 
plan  to  exterminate,  ii.  152;  not 
a  final  social  solution,  ii.  153; 
must  be  maintained,  ii.  266; 
Chicago  unions  ask  L.'s  help  in 
traction  struggle,  ii.  290 

Lafayette,  ii.  261 

Land,  cultivated  profitably  by 
co-operation,  ii.  71;  restoration 
of,  as  means  to  economic 
justice,  ii.  95;  New  Zealand's 


378 


Index 


Land — Continued 

treatment  of   monopoly   in,  ii. 
107-109 

Land  grants  to  corporations,  i.  54 
Landlord,  state  as,  in  New  Zea- 
land, ii.  109;  co-operators  as,  ii. 
166,  169 

Lasalle,  Ferdinand,  ii.  261 
Laughlin,  J.  Laurence,  i.  211 
Law,    fundamentals    applied    to 

new  social  conditions,  i.  282 
Lawson,  Victor,  i.  49 
Lazarus,  Ellen,  of  Brook  Farm,  ii. 

55 

Legislatures,  labour  strives  to 
enter,  i.  119;  prevent  local  self- 
government,  i.  266;  Winnetka 
system  circumvents  power  of,  i. 

273 

Leiter,  Levi  Z.,  ii.  163 

Lermond,  Norman  Wallace,  ii. 
59,  60 

Lewes,  G.  H.,  letter  to  L.  con- 
cerning his  review  of  Middle- 
march,  i.  43 

Liberal  Club,  i.  25 

Liberal  party  of  England  dead, 
ii.  169 

Liberal  Republican  movement  in 
1872,  Cincinnati  convention  i. 
26-31;  bolting  conferences,  i. 
32-36 

Liberty  advances  despite  people's 
lethargy,  i.  201 

Lieber,  Francis,  i.  25 

Liebknecht,  Wilhelm,  ii.  261 

Life-annuities  as  compensation 
for  trust  owners,  ii.  158 

Lincoln,  Abraham,  i.  45,  264,  287; 
ii.  8,  105 

Lingg,  Louis,  Anarchist,  i.  84,  90, 

95,98 

Liquidation  suggested  in  place 
of  redemption,  ii.  31 

Livesey,  Sir  George,  ii.  73,  79,  82 

Lloyd,  Aaron  (great-grandfather), 
i.  2 

Lloyd,  Aaron  (father),  boyhood, 
i-  7;  i-  13;  i-  471  takes  part  at 
L.'s  funeral  service,  ii.  306 

Lloyd,  David  Demarest  (brother), 
boyhood,  i.  7,  13;  at  New  York 
University,  i.  14;  work  on  New 
York  Tribune,  i.  20,  49;  private 
secretary  of  Chief  Justice  Chase, 


i.  20;  his  part  in  the  Fifth  Ave- 
nue Conference  of  Free  Traders 
in  1872,  i.  33;  his  play  For 
Congress,  i.  36,  72;  third  play, 
The  Dominie's  Daughter,  i.  74; 
journey  to  Europe,  i.  74;  fourth 
play,  The  Senator,  i.  139;  death, 
i.  139;  William  Winter's  lines 
to,  i.  140 

Lloyd,  Jessie  Bross  (wife),  i.  44; 
acquaintance  with  President 
Lincoln,  i.  45;  relief  work  at 
time  of  Chicago  fire,  i.  46;  mar- 
riage to  L.,  i.  47;  goes  to 
Springfield  with  husband  to 
plead  for  Anarchists,  i.  93;  talk 
with  William  Dean  Howells,  i. 
72 ;  illness  while  in  Europe,  i.  74; 
personal  charm,  i.  167,  173; 
life  in  the  home,  i.  173,  176, 
179;  L.'s  tribute  to,  ii.  302; 
attends  Chicago  Council  meet- 
ing after  L.'s  death,  ii.  308; 
publishes  L.'s  treatise  The 
Chicago  Traction  Question,  ii. 
309;  death,  Dec.  29,  1904,  ii.  309 

Lloyd,  John  (grandfather),  his 
adventures  in  the  war  of  1812,  i. 
2;  his  life  in  Belleville,  N.  J., 
i.  5,  6,  12 

Lloyd,  John  Calvin  (brother),  i.  7, 

13,  H 
Lloyd,  Maria  Christie  Demarest 

(mother),  i.  1,4,  5,  12,  13,  16; 

her  last  words  to  her  son,  ii. 

298,  299 
Lloyd,   William   Bross     (son),  ii. 

204,  300 
Lockwood,  M.  L.,  i.  225,  226;  ii. 

95 

Lombard    Street,    New    Zealand 

tied  to,  ii.  123 

London  County  Council,  ii.   169 
London  Daily  Chronicle,  ii.  127 
London  Railway  News,  reproduced 
L.'s  "Story  of  a  Great  Mono- 
poly," i.  61 
London  Times,  i.   106 
"Lords  of  Industry,"  1884,  i.  69 
Los  Angeles,  L.  lectures  at,  ii.  177 
Loud  postal  reform  bill,  ii.  140-142 
Love,  the  new,  as  a  social  force, 

i.  108,  293;  ii.  ii,  15 
Lowell,  James  Russell,  i.  121 
Ludlow,  John  Malcolm,  ii.  73 


Index 


379 


Lusk,  Sidney,  ii.  98 
M 

McConnell,  S.  J.,  i.  93 
MacDonald,  J.  Ramsey,  ii.  271 
Mackin,  Tom,  ii.  132 
McKinley,  William,  President,  ar- 
raignment of,  ii.  132 
Macomber,  A.  E.,  i.  189;  ii.  143 
MacVeagh,  Franklin,  ii.  134,  135 
MacVeagh,  Wayne,   ii.  210,  213, 

214,  215 

Madden,  M.  H.,  i.  242 
Mailly,  William,  ii.  257, 271 
Maine,  explosion  of,  ii.  127 
"Making  Bread  Dear,"  1883,1.  65 
"  Man,  the  Creator,"  main  argu- 
ment of,  ii.  7;  love  of  man  shines 
put  in,  ii.  16;  manuscript  unfin- 
ished, ii.  17;  deals  with  L.'s  ideals 
of  education,  art,  and   creative 
function  of  man,  ii.  17 
Manierre,  William  R.,  i.  89 
Mann,  Miss,  her  summer  school  in 

Adirondacks,  ii.  52 
Manual     training    educates    for 

democracy,  i.  296 
"Manuscript  of  1896,"  reveals  L.'s 

deeper  life,  ii.  17,  323 
Maoris,  the,  ii.  101,  102 
Marriage,  L.'s  opinions  on,  i.  76 
Marshall,  Charles  M.,  i.  25 
Marshall,  Matthew,  ii.  147 
Martin,  John  C.,  public  trustee  in 

New  Zealand,  ii.  105 
Marx,  Karl,  i.  120;  ii.  257, 261, 262, 

264 

Marxian  socialists,  i.  298,  304 
Massachusetts  Reform   Club,   ii. 

149;  L.  speaks  before,  ii.  250 
Mather,  Sir  William,  i.  75;  ii.  97, 

136,  182 

Matthews,  Charles  B.,  i.  182,  235 
Matthews  case,  i.  189,  220,  222 
Mazzini,  i.  120;  ii.  8,  325 
Mead,  Edwin  D.f  i.  78,  103,  207, 

226,  278;  ii.  225,  308 
Medill,  Joseph,  i.  92,  101;  ii.  142, 

172 

Mehard,  Samuel  S.,  i.  227 
Mercantile   Library,    New   York 

City,  i.  13,  19-22 
Metcalf,  L.  S.,  i.  59 
Middle  class,  i.  141;  feels  "eco- 


nomic pain,"  ii.  126;  volunteers 
of  Spanish  war  from,  ii.  132; 
duty  of,  ii.  260,  263;  between 
organised  labour  and  capital,  ii. 
267 

Mill,  John  Stuart,  i.  25,  56 

Milliet,  "the  best  informed  man 
in  Switzerland,"  ii.  166 

Mills,  Andrew,  gave  scholarship 
to  L.,  i.  14 

Mills,  B.  Fay,  his  part  in  a  pro- 
posed investigation  of  the  Stan- 
dard Oil  Company,  i.  211-223; 
L.'s  letter  to,  ii.  2;  his  hopeful- 
ness, ii.  45;  change  from  or- 
thodox evangelical  field,  1896,  ii. 
47;  a  description  of,  ii.  48,  65 

Mills,  Mrs.  B.  Fay,  ii.  50 

Miners,  condition  of,  in  Spring 
Valley,  111.,  i.  122,  123;  L.'s  work 
for,  in  Spring  Valley,  i.  124-137; 
relation  to  mine-owners,  i.  130; 
most  oppressed  of  workers,  i. 
138;  gratitude  of,  to  L.,  i,  138, 
139;  ii.  240,  241;  condition  of, 
in  Penna.,  ii.  187;  L.'s  work 
for,  in  Anthracite  coal  strike, 
ii.  196-235;  their  part  in  me- 
morial meeting  to  L.,  ii.  308 

Miners'  strikes,  see  Anthracite  coal 
strike,  Spring  Valley,  111.,  lock- 
put 

Mines,  see  Coal  mines 

Minimum  Wage  Law  of  Victoria, 
ii.  IIO 

Minturn,  Robert  B.,  i.  24 

Mirabeau,  ii.  261 

Missionaries,  i.  15;  Maoris'  opin- 
ion of,  ii.  1 02 

Missouri  Call  for  convention  in 
Cincinnati,  May,  1872,  i.  26 

Mitchell,  John, L.'s  influence  upon, 
i.  137;  L.  writes  to,  on  compul- 
sory arbitration,  ii.  115;  leader 
of  striking  anthracite  miners,  ii. 
187;  offers  to  submit  to  arbitra- 
tion, ii.  193;  pleads  for  miners' 
children,  ii.  195;  thanked  by 
President  Roosevelt,  ii.  195; 
appeals  for  peace,  ii.  196;  L. 
offers  services  to,  ii.  198-9;  pre- 
pares miners'  case  for  Anthra- 
cite Coal  Strike  Commission, 
ii.  200-203;  popular  hero,  ii. 
201 ;  simplicity  of,  ii.  204; 


380 


Index 


Mitchell,  John  L. — Continued 
ability  in  legal  combat,  ii.  211; 
esteem  for  L.,  ii.  235;  labour's 
reception  to,  in  Chicago,  ii.  235; 
thanks  L.  for  services  during 
anthracite  strike,  ii.  240;  L. 
consults  before  joining  socialists, 
ii.  271 ;  speaks  at  memorial  meet- 
ing, ii.  308 

Mitchell  Day,  ii.  20 

Money  of  the  New  Conscience,  an 
address,  ii.  20;  purpose  of  the 
book,  ii.  23;  manuscript  un- 
finished, ii.  40;  "service  for 
service, "  ii.  43 

Money  question,  L.'s  financial  edi- 
torials in  Chicago  Tribune,  i.  50; 
silver  demonetisation,  i.  50,  51 ; 
gold  basis,  i.  51;  ii.  25-35;  free 
silver  movement,  i.  256,  257, 
259,  260,  262,  264;  ii.  19, 20,  23; 
question  not  understood  by 
people,  ii.  19,  21,  23;  money 
shows  moral  qualities  of  people, 
ii.  24;  monetary  changes  sug- 
gested, ii.  37,  38;  see  also  Gold, 
Silver 

Monnett,  F.  S.,  Attorney-General 
of  Ohio,  his  suit  against  Stand- 
ard Oil  trust,  ii.  145 

Monopolists,  do  not  create  wealth, 
i.  53;  ii.  151 ;  when  they  succeed, 
the  people  fail,  i.  58;  tyrants,  i. 
114;  control  party  machinery,  i. 
266;  destroy  creative  energy,  i. 
290 

Monopoly,  posters  of  John  Lloyd 
(grandfather),  in  the  early 
forties,  i.  6;  L.'s  graduating  ad- 
dress i.  15;  L.'s  early  editorials 
in  exposing  i.  52;  L.'s  maga- 
zine articles,  1881-84,  i-  59~ 
72;  monopoly  is  force,  i.  113; 
L.'s  stroke  against  Chicago  gas 
and  street  railway  monopoly,  i. 
159;  L.'s  anti-monopoly  book 
Wealth  against  Commonwealth, 
i.  181-237;  must  become  prop- 
erty of  people,  i.  251,  292;  will 
control  direct  legislation,  i.  277; 
must  be  abolished,  i.  281;  com- 
mon law  sufficient  to  deal  with, 
i.  282,  283;  sales  of,  can  be  de- 
clared void,  i.  285;  socialism  to 
abolish,  i.  301 ;  money  one  field 


of,  ii.  35;  controls  minds  of 
public  teachers,  ii.  46;  of  land* 
laws  to  prevent, in  New  Zealand, 
ii.  1 08;  less  acute  in  New  Zea- 
land than  U.  S.,  ii.  121;  not 
economical,  ii.  150;  government 
purchase  of,  not  a  cure,  ii.  157; 
grown  imperial,  ii.  184;  natural 
in  anthracite  regions,  ii.  187; 
in  anthracite  regions,  ii.  217- 
221;  resistance  to,  concerns  all 
classes,  ii.  264;  traction  ii.  281; 
see  also  Trusts 

Monroe  Doctrine,  ii.  127,  128 

Montauk  Point,  camp,  ii.  131 

Moot,  Adelbert,  i.  189 

Morgan,  J.  Pierpont,  ii.  198,  213, 
296 

Morgan,  Thomas  J.,  i.  242,  244, 
282;  ii.  258,  271,  285,  296 

Morley,  Margaret,  i.  177 

Morris,  William,  i.  76,  77,  87;  ii. 
226 

Moseley,  Edward  A.,  ii.  237,  250 

Mosher,  Charles,  i.  200 

Mueller,  Hans,  head  of  Swiss  co- 
operators,  ii.  1 66 

Mueller  law,  for  municipal  owner- 
ship of  Chicago  traction  lines,  ii. 
295,  296,  303 

Multiple  standard,  ii.  40,  41 

Municipal  ownership,  in  Winnetka, 
i.  270,  273;  in  Toledo,  ii.  143; 
of  street  car  lines,  fight  for,  in 
Chicago,  ii.  279;  L.  died  for 
principle  of,  ii.  306;  people 
lose  fight  for,  in  Chicago,  ii.  309 

Municipal  Ownership  Delegate 
Convention  of  Chicago,  ii.  302; 
members  at  meeting  of  Common 
Council,  ii.  305;  makes  its  issue 
a  memorial  to  L.,  ii.  309 

Murray,  F.  F.,  i.  154,  201 

Mutual  Aid,  ii.  272 

N 

Nast,  Thomas,  i.  27 
Nation,  i.  17;  ii.  239,  240 
National  banks  given  business  of 

state  banks,  i.  286 
National    Civic    Federation,    L. 

attends  meeting  of,  i.  159;   L. 

disapproves    of    conference    of 

reformers  under  auspices  of,  i. 


Index 


Nat.  Civic  Federation. — Con'd 
246;  L.  not  invited  to  confer- 
ence of,  on  arbitration,  ii.  117; 
mediates  in  coal  strike,  ii.  188 

National  Direct  Legislation 
League,  i.  274 

National  Federation  for  Majority 
Rule,  ii.  294 

National  Liberal  Club  of  England, 
ii.  74 

Nationalisation  of  land  in  New 
Zealand,  ii.  109 

Neebe,  Oscar,  Anarchist,  i.  84,  86 

Negro  problem,  ii.  268-270,  276 

Nelson,  N.  p.,  i.  263;  ii.  272 

New  Conscience,  The,  L.'s  address 
before  Chicago  Ethical  Culture 
Society,  i.  112;  heard  in  as- 
pirations of  working  man,  i.  1 13; 
the  remedy  for  revolution,  i. 
113;  voice  of,  foretells  new  day, 
i.  114;  L.'s  keynote  struck  in 
this  address,  i.  114;  ii.  323;  pub- 
lished in  North  American  Review, 
and  Henry  George's  paper,  i. 
115;  read  before  Fellowship  of 
the  New  Life,  London,  i.  115; 

New  England  Magazine,  on  Pull- 
man strike,  i.  149,  150 

New  era,  its  watchword  to  be 
creation,  ii.  4;  ushered  in  by  a 
new  religion,  ii.  14 

New  Jersey  laws,  formation  of 
trusts  under,  ii.  147 

New  York  Board  of  Trade  and 
Transportation,  ii.  189 

New  York  Evening  Post,  i.  29,  34, 
43,  231;  ii.  133,  240,  243 

New  York  Herald,  i.  28 

New  York  Journal,  ii.  131,  135, 
190,  213 

New  York  Sun,  ii.  147 

New  York  Times,  i.,  22,  23 

New  York  Tribune,  i.  20,  25,  30, 
36,  49;  ii.  33 

New  York  World,  i.  216;  ii.  in, 
148,  164,  1 88 

New  Zealand,  L.'s  reasons  for 
studying,  ii.  94,  97;  L.'s  travels 
in,  ii.  97-111;  railroads  of,  ii.  99, 
106;  L.'s  telegram,  ii.  99;  labour 
troubles  of,  ii.  103;  compulsory 
arbitration  in,  ii.  103.  in,  238; 
old  age  pension-system,  ii.  105; 
woman's  suffrage,  ii.  105;  land 


monopoly,  ii.  108;  Cheviot,  ii. 
1 08;  importance  of  land  division, 
ii.  109;  Waimate,  ii.  109  ;  the 
government  as  landlord,  ii.  109; 
forms  of  co-operative  industry, 
ii.  no;  L.'s  story  of,  in  Newest 
England,  ii.  117;  false  stories 
circulated  about,  ii.  121;  finan- 
cial relations  with  England,  ii. 
43,  122,  170;  L.'s  fears  for,  ii. 
123;  state  coal  mines  of,  ii.  195 

Newest  England,  story  of  L.'s 
New  Zealand  tour,  ii.  117;  aim 
of,  to  help  save  America,  ii.  118; 
William  Pember  Reeves'  com- 
ment on,  ii.  120; 

Newton,  Heber,  i.  227,  228 

Nineteenth  Century  Club  of  New 
York,  L.'s  address  before,  ii.  156 

"  No  Mean  City,"  i.  164,  269 

Non-Partisan  Federation  for  Ma- 
jority Rule,  i.  274 

Non-union  labour,  ii.  207;  con- 
trasted to  scab,  ii.  227;  moral 
duty  and  legal  right  of,  ii.  228 

Norman,  Henry,  i.  75,  77 

North  American  Review,  refused 
L.'s  "Story  of  a  Great  Monop- 
oly, "in  1 88 1,  i.  59;  published 
his  "Making  Bread  Dear,"  in 
1883,  i.  65;  "  Lords  of  Indus- 
try,"!. 69;  "New  Conscience," 
in  1888,  i.  115;  oil  trust  defends 
itself  in,  i.  216 

North  Family,  publication  of  the 
Shakers,  ii.  53 

North-Western  Gaslight  and  Coke 
Company,  efforts  to  secure 
franchise  in  Winnetka,  i.  270, 
272,  273 

Norton,  Charles  Eliot,  i.  121 

"  Nullification  of  the  People's 
Wffl,"  ii.  146 


Obrazovaine,  of  St.  Petersburg, 
publishes  abridged  translation 
of  Wealth  against  Commonwealth, 
i.  203 

O'Connor,  T.  P.,  i.  77 

Oglesby,  Richard  J.,  Governor  of 
Illinois,  his  attitude  toward 
Anarchists,  i.  89,  90;  L.'s  plea 


382 


Index 


Oglesby,  Richard  J. — Continued 
to,  i.  93-95;  traction  franchises 
passed  over  his  veto,  ii.  281 

Ohio  Supreme  Court,  i.  229,  232; 
ii.  145, 146 

Oil  City  Derrick,  attack  on  L.'s 
speech,  i.  154 

Oil  deposits,  i.  3 

Oil  trust,  i.  182,  183;  oil  not 
made  cheap  by ,  i.  186;  ii.  150.  L. 
uses,  to  illustrate  monopoly,  i. 
194;  control  in  foreign  coun- 
tries, i.  203;  same  control  as 
South  Improvement  Co.,  i.  209; 
invites  investigation  as  to  L.'s 
charges,  i.  212-214;  Interstate 
Commerce  Commission,  findings 
against,  i.  213;  members  testify 
that  records  are  destroyed,  i. 
2I3»  235;  attempts  of  members 
to  defend  themselves,  i.  216; 
member  attacks  L.,  i.  225;  pau- 
perism of  defence,  i.  230,  236; 
called  "our  old  enemy,"  ii.  125; 
continued,  railroad  discrimina- 
tions, ii.  139 

Old  age  pension-system,  New  Zea- 
land's, ii.  105 

Olmsted,  Frederick  Law,  i.  36 

Olney,  Richard,  i.  145 

Omaha  convention  of  People's 
Party,  1892,  i.  239;  platform,  i. 
25.7,  259 

Orwig,  H.  I.,  i.  271 

Outlook,  formerly  Christian  Union- 
articles  in,  i.  69;  ii.  142 

Owen,  Albert  Kimsey,  ii.  20 

Owen,  Robert,  ii.  93 

Owenism,  ii.  52 


Pacific  Ocean,  future  commerce  of, 

ii.  177 

Panics,  causes  of,  ii.  27,  35 
Parcels-post    prevented    in    Con- 
gress by  express  company  lobby, 
ii.  141 

Parkhurst,  Charles  H.,  ii.  146 
Parliament,  British,  L.'s  visit  to, 

»•  75,  77 

Parnell,  Charles  Stewart,  i.  75 
Parsons,  Albert  R.,  Anarchist,  i. 

85,  95,  97,  98 


Parsons,  Frank,  i.  62,  227;  ii.  119, 
185 

Party,  politics,  i.  295-297;  neces- 
sary evil,  ii.  275 

Payne,  Senator,  i.  218 

Pearson,  Daniel  K.,  ii.  174 

Pell,  Alfred,  i.  24 

People's  Advocate  publishes  "The 
Great  Coal  Conspiracy,"  i.  158 

People's  Party,  inaugurated  1891, 
i.  238;  first  national  convention, 
Omaha,  Feb.,  1892,  i.  239;  re- 
presentatives in  C  o  n  g  r  e  ss , 

1894,  i-    239;    L.'s    effort   for, 
i.  241;  244;  invites  all  radicals 
to  unite,  i.  247 ;  nominates  L.  for 
Congress,  i.  247;  L.'s   opening 
campaign    speech    i.    249;  L.'s 
closing   campaign   speech   251 ; 
platform  of,  i.   254;  disrupted 
by  money  question,  i.  255;  con- 
ference   of  leaders,    St.    Louis, 

1895,  i.  257;  the  party's  mana- 
ger, Taubeneck,  i.  258;   party 
betrayed,   i.   261,  264;  ii.   274; 
convention    nominated    Bryan, 
i.  262;  ii.  254;  L.  analyses  its 
defeat,  i.    263;    collapse   of,  i. 
280;    socialists    invited    to    St. 
Louis  conference,   1896,  ii.  60; 
John     Mitchell    candidate    of, 
ii.    205;    an    improvisation    in 
politics,  ii.  267 

Perry,  Arthur  Latham,  i.  31 
Petroleum  Gazette,  i.  154 
Pettigrew,  Richard,  Senator,  ii.  212 
Philippines,   subjugation    of    the 

Filipinos,  ii.  133,  134 
Phillips,  Wendell,  i.  120;  ii.  261 
Phillips,  Wendell,  of  the  West,  L. 

called,  ii.  56 
Pictorial  Taxpayer,  i.  25 
Pingree,  Hazen  S.,  ii.  156 
Pinner,  Moritz,  ii.  125,  179,  181, 

280,  309 
Pledging  candidates,  part  of  Win- 

netka  system,  i.  272,  275 
Plunkett,  Sir  Horace,  ii.  72,  85, 

94 

Plutocracy,  power  of,  increasing, 
i.  280 

Plutocrats  do  not  practise  moder- 
ation, i.  291 

Poetzsch,  Hugo,  German  social- 
ist, ii.  1 66,  272 


Index 


383 


Police,  i.  82,  83,  84,  104,  106 

Political  economy,  L.'s  attack  on 
the  orthodox  school  of,  i.  62-65; 
ii.  24;  new  school  of,  ii.  15 

Political  Economy  of  $73,000,000, 
1882,  the  career  of  Jay  Gould 
as  illustrative  of  the  compet- 
itive system  of  industry,  i. 
62-65 

Pomeroy,  Eltweed,  i.  276;  ii.  47, 
49,  272,  274 

Post-office,  threatened  by  Loud 
bill,  ii.  140,  141 

Post-office  savings  bank  in  New 
Zealand,  ii.  105 

Potter,  Howard,  i.  24 

Power,  Father  John  F.,  of  Spring 
Valley,  111.,  i.  125,  133,  134;  ii. 
192,  198 

Prentiss,  William,  Judge,  ii.  309 

Press,  its  fear  of  money  power,  ii. 

US 

Press  Club  of  Chicago,  L.  member 
of,  i.  141 

Private  ownership,  beneficent  re- 
sults of  public  ownership  com- 
pared to,  ii.  1 06 

Private  property,  right  to  interfere 
with,  ii.  249;  exploited  by  crimi- 
nal rich,  ii.  264 

Profit-sharing,  in  South  Metro- 
politan Gas  Works,  London,  ii. 
80 

Progress,  a  greater  word  than  per- 
fection, ii.  I 

Progressive  Review,  of  London,  i. 
261,  304 

Progressives  turn  from  political 
field,  ii.  45 

Proletariat  ii.  261-264,  274.  279 

Property,  L.  acquires  independent 
income,  i.  79;  ii.  172;  L.'s  bus- 
iness ability,  ii.  '71;  plans  for 
his  capital,  ii.  173-176 

Pryor,  Roger  A.,  i.  87 

Public,  Chicago,  ii.  284 

Public  opinion,  L.'s  effort  to 
influence,  i.  141;  ii.  164 

Public  Opinion  Law,  passed  in 
Illinois,  1901,  ii.  283;  see  also 
Initiative  and  referendum 

Public  ownership  of  cold-storage 
warehouses,  slaughter  houses,  in 
New  Zealand,  ii.  no 

Pullman,  George  M.,  i.  144,  146 


Pullman  strike,  1894,  i.  144;  L.'s 

op  i  rums  on,  i.  145;  Altgeld's; 
attitude  during,  i.  147-151; 
methods  used  by  railway  mana- 
gers to  defeat,  i.  150,  152;  re- 
vealed hostile  attitude  of  courts 
and  federal  government,  i.  240; 
i.  242 
Pym,  John,  ii.  266 


R 


Railroad  officials  testify  that  they 
destroy  freight  records,  i.  235 

Railroads,  combination  in  Cali- 
fornia, i.  54;  Reading  road  and 
the  coal  combination,  i.  55; 
strike  of  1877,  i.  59;  L.'s  ex- 
posure of  rebates  and  discrimi- 
nations in  "Story  of  a  Great 
Monopoly,"  i.  59-61;  L.'s  sug- 
gestions for  the  control  of,  i. 
60;  wrecking  of  the  Erie  road 
i.  64;  government  ownership 
of,  advocated,  i.  158;  gov- 
ernment guarantee  of  stock 
dividends,  i.  286;  results  of 
public  ownership  of,  in  New 
Zealand,  ii.  1 06;  English  capi- 
talists' offer  to  build,  refused,  ii. 
107;  favour  oil  trust,  ii.  139; 
rob  the  post-office  department, 
ii.  141;  freight  rate  discrim- 
ination by,  proved,  ii.  146; 
source  of  trust  power,  ii.  148; 
State  commissions  ineffectual 
ii.  149;  nationalisation  of,  in 
England,  to  prevent  American 
capitalistic  control,  ii.  183; 
condemnation  of,  to  end  an- 
thracite coal  strike,  ii.  196; 
community  of  interest  with  coal 
corporations,  ii.  218;  national- 
isation of,  urgent,  ii.  239;  owner- 
ship of,  means  control  of  every- 
thing, ii.  249 

Randolph,  John,  i.  24,  34,  35 

Rebates  and  discriminations  by 
railroads,  L.'s  exposure  of,  i. 
60,  6 1 ;  Standard  Oil  Company 
crushed  competitors  by  getting, 
i.  218;  records  of  Interstate 
Commerce  Commission  on,  i. 
235;  discrimination  proved,  ii. 


3S4 


Index 


Rebates — Continued 
91,  146;  none  in  New  Zealand, 
ii.    106;    railroad    commissions 
fail  to  check,  ii.  149 

Receivership,  suggested  for  anthra- 
cite coal  mines,  ii.  243,  249; 
legal  precedent  for,  ii.  251 

Redeemer,  man  is  mankind's,  i. 
114;  ii.  8 

Redemption,  in  specie,  source  of 
monetary  evils,  ii.  31 

Reed,  John  C.,  ii.  264,  268,  270 

Reed,  Myron  W.,  ii.  61 

Rees,  William  Lee,  ii.  135 

Reeves,  William  Pember,  author 
of  New  Zealand's  arbitration 
act,  ii.  104,  120 

Referendum,  see  Initiative  and 
referendum 

Reform,  help  expected  from  clergy- 
men,!. 196;  L.'sattitude  toward, 
i.  285 

Reform  publications  threatened 
by  Loud  postal  bill,  ii.  141 

Reformers,  waste  energy  criti- 
cising each  other,  i.  284;  L. 
counsels  to  husband  resources, 
ii.  265 

Refugees,  political,  in  United 
States,  i.  157 

Regulation,  a  failure,  as  remedy 
for  trusts,  i.  292 

Reid,  Whitelaw,  i.  27 

Religion,  the  new,  L.  plans  book 
on,  i.  116;  a  new,  forming,  ii.  3; 
of  labour,  ii.  ii;  an  expansion 
of  Christianity,  ii.  12;  its  proper 
work,  ii.  14;  discussed  at  Lake 
George  Conference,  ii.  49 

Religions,  World's  Parliament  of, 
i.  161 

Remedies  for  social  disorders,  i. 
no 

Representative  government,  short- 
comings of,  ii.  162,  293 

Republic,  American,  L.'s  love  for,  i. 
i,  96, 193;  his  despondency  over, 
i.  96;  its  doom  sealed  if  labour's 
right  to  organise  be  taken 
away,  i.  143;  peril  of,  i.  197, 
202,  230,  281;  the  ideal,  slow 
development  of,  ii.  90 

Republican  Party,  i.  239;  ii.  253, 
267 

Repudiation,  i.  286 


Review  of  Reviews,  i.  155;  ii,  167 

Revolution,  industrial,  beginnings 
of,  in  United  States,  i.  53;  in 
oil  regions,  i.  209;  revolution 
of  igth  century,  ii.  278 

Revolution,  social,  L.  foresees,  i.  81 ; 
people  of  Chicago  feared,  i.  86; 
English  and  French  methods 
compared,  i.  89;  the  remedy  for, 
i.  113;  reform  instead  of,  i. 
285;  the  new  religion  as,  ii. 
12,  116;  New  Zealand's,  ii. 
118;  the  dynamic  part  of  social 
evolution,  ii.  155;  in  the  2Oth 
century,  ii.  161 

Rhodes,  James,  ii.  85,  91,  92 

Rice,  Allen  Thorndike,  i.  59 

Rice,  George,  i.  226,  227,  235 

Rice  case,  i.  189,  219,  225,  230; 
ii.  146 

Rigg,  John,  ii.  120 

Riots  in  Pullman  strike  i.  149 

Riviera,  roads  of  Cheviot,  New 
Zealand,  compared  to,  ii.  108 

Roberts,  ,  Welsh  miners' 

clergyman,  ii.  205,  206 

Robinson,  Ready  Money,  New 
Zealand,  ii.ioo 

Rochdale  system,  ii.  82 

Rockefeller,  John  D.,  his  early 
scheme,  i.  19;  Rev.  B.  Fay 
Mills  asks  about  character  of, 
i.  212;  requests  investigation  of 
Standard  Oil,  i.  212;  i.  235;  L. 
offers  to  meet,  i.  213;  identified 
with  steel  trust  schemes,  ii. 
136-9;  speculative  orgy  of,  ii. 
164 

Rogers,  Thorold,  i.  75;  ii.  81 

Roosevelt,  Theodore,  President, 
i.  232 ;  efforts  to  stop  coal  strike, 
ii.  189;  ii.  198;  attitude  to, 
of  working  men,  ii.  201;  forces 
compulsory  arbitration  on  coal 
operators,  ii.  202;  wins  popu- 
larity during  strike,  ii.  204;  at- 
titude of,  to  labour,  contrasted, 
with  Cleveland's,  ii.  236;  L.'s 
estimate  of,  ii.  254 

Root  Elihu,  Secretary  of  War, 
ii.  198 

Root,  John,  i.  164 

Rugby  conference  of  English  co- 
operators,  ii.  69 

Ruskin  College  built,  1897,  ii.  62 


Index 


385 


Ruskin  Colony,  ii.  49,  62 

Ruskin  Co-operative  Association, 

ii.  68 
Russia,    extradition   treaty   with, 

ratification    protested,    i.    157; 

produce  stored   as  security  for 

loans,  ii.  33 


Sachs,  Julius,  i.  1 6 

St.  Louis  Globe-Democrat,  i.  70 

Sakonnet  Point,  L.'s  summer 
home,  i.  1 76 

Salisbury,  Lord,  and  Venezuelan 
crisis,  ii.  128 

Salter,  William  M.,  beginning  of 
L.'s  friendship  with,  i.  78;  efforts 
for  Anarchists,  i.  87,  92,  93;  L.'s 
letters  to,  1.248 ;  ii.  119, 180,271, 
2  73.  285;  comments  on  Labour 
Copartnership  ii.  83;  speaks  at 
L.'s  funeral,  ii.  306 

Sands,  Mahlon,  i.  25,  28 

Scandinavia,  oil  trust  control  in, 
i-  203 

Schaack,  Captain  of  Chicago 
police,  i.  1 06 

Schilling,  George  H.,  i.  262 

Schnaubelt,  ,  Anarchist,  i.  84 

Schools,  influencing  opinions  in, 
ii.  144;  of  2Oth  century,  ii.  161 

Schurz,  Carl,  i.  24,  35,  37 

Schwab,  Michael,  Anarchist,  i.  84, 
95,  243 

Scofield,  W.  C.,  vs.  Standard  Oil 
Company,  disappearance  of  re- 
cords from  Cleveland  Court- 
house, i.  234,  236 

Scott,  James  W.,  ii.  41 

Scott,  W.  L.,  i.  126,  131 

Scripps,  J.  L.,  one  of  founders  of 
Chicago  Free  Press,  i.  44 

Scudder,  Vida,  i.  174,  307 

Seddon,  Richard  J.,  Premier  of 
New  Zealand,  ii.  105,  121,  122 

Seizure  of  coal  mines,  advocated, 
ii.  247;  legal,  ii.  250 

Self-interest,  i.  293 

Seliger, ,  Anarchist,  i.  84 

Serfs,  land  legislation  to  prevent, 
ii.  1 08 

Service  for  service,  new  school  of 
political  economy  founded  on, 

25 


ii.  15;  proposed  new  currency 
based  on,  ii.  34,  43;  spirit  of 
monetary  science,  ii.  43 

Shaftesbury,  Earl  of,  i.  232 

Shakers  at  Mt.  Lebanon,  New 
York,  ii.  53 

Shaw,  Albert,  i.  155,  289;  ii.  85 

Sherman,  Roger,  i.  189,  282 

Sherman  Anti-Trust  Law,  see 
Anti-Trust  Law 

Sherman  case,  ii.  146 

Shibley,  George  H.,  i.  274,  278; 
ii.  294 

Sidney,  Sir  Philip,  ii.  314 

Silver,  demonetisation,  L.'s  edi- 
torials in  Chicago  Tribune,  i. 
50;  remonetisation,  i.  256;  free 
silver  movement,  i.  262,  264;  ii. 
19,  20,  23;  free  coinage  of,  ii.  20 

Simons,  A.  M.,  ii.  271,  279 

Singer,  Paul,  ii.  261 

Single  tax  theory,  expounded  by 
Henry  George  in  England,  i.  55; 
L.'s  opinion  of,  i.  301 

Slaughter  houses  publicly  owned 
in  Australasia,  ii.  no 

Slavery,  labour  as  modern  slavery, 
i.  113,  ii.  263;  Republican 
Party,  puts  end  to,  i.  264;  spread 
of  chattel,  prevented  in  Kansas, 
ii.  6 1 

Slums  of  various  cities  studied  by, 
L.,  i.  80 

Smalley,  E.  V.,  i.  64 

Smith,  J.  S.,  ii.  272 

Social  and  Economic  Conference 
in  Chicago,  1896,  ii.  20 

Social  and  Political  Conference  at 
Detroit,  i.  274 

Social  consciousness,  a  sixth  sense, 
i.  293 

Social  Democratic  Federation  of 
Glasgow,  ii.  289 

Social  Democratic  Party  formed 
at  split  of  social  democracy,  ii. 
61,  257 

Social  Democrats  of  Germany,  ii. 
166,  177 

Social  Economist  speaks  for  Stan- . 
dard  Oil  Company,  i.  206 

Social  Gospel,  paper  of  the  Christ- 
ian Commonwealth,  ii.  65 

Social  reform  and  reformers,  see 
Reform;  Reformers 

Social  revolution,  see  Revolution 


386 


Index 


Socialism,  L.'s  opinion  on  in  1882, 
i.  55;  ii.  255;  People's  Party 
platform  contains,  i.  254;  con- 
flict with  individualism  only 
apparent,  i.  293;  state  socialism 
a  danger,  i.  295;  L.  defines  his, 
i.  298;  stands  for  abolition  of 
monopoly  and  emancipation  of 
workers,  i.  301 ;  discussed  at 
Lake  George  Conference,  ii. 
49;  plans  for  teaching,  ii.  59,  61 ; 
ideal  of,  achieved  by  English 
co-operators,  ii.  69;  New  Zea- 
land moving  toward,  ii.  123; 
trust  administration  and,  ii. 
169;  in  Germany,  Belgium,  ii. 
177,  181 ;  to  check  imperial  cap- 
italism, ii.  184;  a  religion,  ii. 
255;  relation  of,  to  co-opera- 
tion, ii.  87-89,  256;  L.'s  posi- 
tion, ii.  258-264;  Chicago 
traction  situation  offers  oppor- 
tunity for,  ii.  286 

Socialist  Labour  Party,  beginnings 
of,  i.  52,  53;  L.  votes  ticket  of,  i. 
265;  L.'s  lack  of  faith  in,  i.  280; 
governed  by  hierarchy,  i.  303 

Socialist  Party,  Berger  consults 
L.  about  organising,  i.  280; 
L.  not  affiliated  with,  i.  303; 
formed,  ii;  61,  253,  257;  L. 
discusses  platform  of,  ii.  258; 
farmers  join,  ii.  257;  middle 
class  relation  to,  ii.  267;  L.  de- 
cides to  join,  ii.  272;  L.'s  rea- 
sons for  joining  ii.  272-279 
L.  postpones  joining,  ii.  279; 
L.  advises  it  to  take  up  Chicago 
traction  question,  ii.  286 

Socialists,  small  groups  in  sym- 
pathy with  Chicago  Anarchists, 
i.  87;  control  Illinois  Federation 
of  Labor  conference,  i.  245;  a 
power  in  People's  Party,  i.  254; 
world  union  of  all,  proposed,  ii. 
60;  attitude  of  some,  toward 
trusts  unscientific,  ii.  153;  of 
Maine,  Massachusetts,  petition 
for  national  ownership  of  coal 
mines,  ii.  244;  L.  identifies  self 
with,  ii.  251 ;  sectarian,  ii.  257, 
261 

Sound  Money,  ii.  33 

South  Improvement  Company,  i. 
19;  denounced  by  press,  i.  181; 


denied  as  part  of  oil  trust  by 
Gunton,  i.  208,  209 

South  Metropolitan  Gas  Com- 
pany, London,  ii.  73,  79,  80,  83 

South  Sea  Bubble,  speculation  in 
oil  fields  compared  to,  ii.  164 

Southworth,  F.f  i.  224 

Sovereign  People,  posthumous 
book  of  L.  on  Swiss  democracy, 
ii.  323 

Spahr,  Charles  B.,  i.  207,  226;  ii. 
77,83 

Spain,  war  with,  ii.  127,  130; 
ruined  by  expansion,  ii.  134 

Spargo,  John,  ii.  253 

Spaulding,  Bishop,  ii.  210,  232 

Specie,  superstition  about,  ii.  24, 
27,  28 

Spencer,  Herbert,  i.  96 

Spies,  August,  Anarchist,  i.  84,  87, 
88,  95,  98 

Spring  Valley,  111.,  lockout  of 
coal  miners,  1888,  i.  123;  L. 
investigates  conditions,  issues 
appeal  for  help,  and  publishes 
facts  of  "conspiracy"  against 
the  miners,  in  Chicago  Herald, 
and  in  his  first  book,  A  Strike  of 
Millionaires  Against  Miners, 
i.  124;  Chicago  and  North  - 
Western  Railroad's  part  in,  i. 
127,  252 ;  heroism  at  Spring  Val- 
ley ii.  241 

Springfield  conference  of  Illinois 
Federation  of  Labor  i.  241,  256 

Springfield  Republican,  i.  223; 
ii.  57,  130,  140,  164,  198 

Stallbohm,  Caroline,  i.  177 

Stallo, ,  Judge,  i.  34 

Stancliff,  Lemuel,  i.  2 

Standard  Oil  Company,  L.'s 
"Story  of  a  Great  Monopoly," 
1 88 1,  i.  59,61 ;  illustrates  growth 
of  trust  system,  i.  182;  made 
oil  dear,  i.  186;  Howells'  opin- 
ion of,  i.  197;  L.  expected  to 
be  crushed  by,  i.  206;  Gunton's 
defence  of,  i.  206-211;  B.  Fay 
Mills  offered  facts,  i.  212;  de- 
clares Wealth  Against  Common- 
wealth untruthful,  i.  212,  227; 
solicits  investigation  by  minis- 
ters and  economists,  i.  212;  un- 
willing L.  should  be  at  investi- 
gation, i.  214;  defence  of  it- 


Index 


387 


Standard  Oil  Company — Cont'd. 
self  to  B.  Fay  Mills  and  L.'s 
rejoinders  to  Mills,  i.  215-223; 
history  of,  by  Ida  M.  Tarbell,  i. 
233;  government's  suit  to  dis- 
solve, in  1908,  i.  236;  ordered 
dissolved  in  191 1,  i.  237;  remains 
silent  against  cumulative  in- 
dictment, i.  237;  L.'s  later 
attitude  toward,  i.  307;  Toledo 
abandons  suit  against,  ii.  142; 
Case  of  Attorney-General  F.  S. 
Monnettof  Ohio  against,  ii.  145, 
146;  interests  indentified  with 
Chicago  traction  companies,  ii. 
294;  see  also  Wealth  Against 
Commonwealth 

Stanton,  Theodore,  i.  75 

State,  the,  a  social  instrument,  i. 
294 

State  banks  taxed  out  of  existence, 
i.  286 

State  socialism,  a  danger  under 
capitalism,  i.  295 

Stead,  W.  T.,  i.  152,  172,  202;  ii. 
128,  167,  169,  181 

Steel  trust,  men  of,  run  railroads, 
ii.  91 ;  its  advantages  in  compe- 
tition, ii.  91;  organised  as 
Federal  Steel  Company,  ii.  136; 
L.'s  warnings  against,  ii.  137- 

Stein,  Lorenz  von,  ii.  261 
Stepniak,  Sergius,  i.  76,  87 
Sterne,  Simon,  i.  31 
Stevenson,  Robert  Louis,  i.  71, 197 
Stewart,  Ethelbert,  i.  80 
Stocks,  of  middle  class  depreciate, 

ii.   126;  of  steel  trust  manipu- 
lated, ii.  137 

Stokes,  Anson  Phelps,  i.  24 
Stone,   William   A.,  Governor  of 

Pennsylvania,  ii.  192,  196 
.  Stone,     Melville    E.,     owner    of 

Chicago  Daily  News,  i.  49 
"Story  of    a    Great    Monopoly," 

1881,  i.  59 

Stout,  Sir  Robert,  ii.  98 
Street  car  franchises,  contest  over, 

in  Chicago,  ii.  281 
Strike     of     Millionaires     Against 

Miners,  published  1890,  i.  131, 

!35,  139;  »•  1 88 
Strikes,    in    the    United    States, 

1886,  i.  83;  Spring  Valley,  111. 


lockout  of  coal  miners,  1888,  i. 
1 23; Homestead, i.  i43;Pullman, 
i.  144;  the  sympathetic  strike, 
i.  146;  methods  in  New  Zealand, 
ii.  103,  104;  St.  Louis,  L.'s  ex- 
pert information  sought,  ii.  1 1 1 ; 
anthracite  coal  strike  of  1902, 
ii.  187 

Strobell,  George  H.,  ii.  49 

Strong,  Josiah,  i.  212 

Stuart,  W.  H.,  ii.  272,  273 

Sub-treasury  scheme  of  western 
farmers,  ii.  32 

Sugar  mills  publicly  owned  in 
Australasia,  ii.  110 

Sugar  trust,  tariff  legislation 
favours,  ii.  126;  concealed  facts, 
from  court,  ii.  243 

Sunday  lecture  societies,  i.  47,  48 

Sunday  opening  of  New  York 
reading  rooms,  L.'s  efforts  for, 
i.  21,  22 

Sunset  Club  of  Chicago,  L.  mem- 
ber of,  i.  141 

Supreme  Court  of  Ohio,  i.  229, 
232;  prevents  prosecution  of 
Standard  Oil  Co.,  ii.  145,  146 

Supreme  Court  of  United  States, 
refuses  Debs  right  of  trial,  i. 
145;  will  of  people  nullified  by, 
ii.  147 

Swinton,  John,  i.  70,  80,  120,    199 

Switzerland,  initiative  and  referen- 
dum in,  i.  266;  ii.  153,  162;  L. 
studies  democracy  in,  1901,  ii. 
163,  178;  people's  banks  of,  ii. 
179;  a  real  democracy,  ii.  254; 
L.'s  book  on,  ii.  323 


Tainted  money,  Washington  Glad- 
den on,  i.  202 

Tammany  Hall,  L.'s  work  against, 
i.  22-24;  ii-  !4-6 

Tarbell,  Ida  M.,  i.  233,  236;  ii.  309 

Tariff,  early  discussions  by  L.,  i. 
25;  legislation  for  sugar  trust, 
ii.  126;  discriminations  favour 
campaign  contributors,  ii.  132; 
see  also  Free  trade 

Tattersall's  Hall,  i.  251 

Taubeneck,  manager  of  People's 
Party,  i.  258,  259,  261;  betrays 
the  party,  i.  261 


Index 


Taxation,  right  of,  the  people's 
weapon,  4.  286;  progressive,  as 
means  to  economic  justice,  ii. 
95;  in  New  Zealand  prevents 
land  monopoly,  ii.  108;  of  New 
Zealand  called  too  timid,  ii.  123 

Taylor,  Graham,  i.  212 

Third  party,  farmers  and  organ- 
ised labour  turn  to,  i.  238 

Thomson, — ; — ,  i.  75  %. 

Thomson,  George,  ii.  73 

Tilden,  Samuel  J.,  i.  24 

Tilman,  Benjamin,  Senator,  ii.  245 

Tilton,  Theodore,  i.  29,  38 

Times  Lyttelton,  ii.  105 

Toledo,  gas  contest,  i.  189;  aban- 
dons suit  against  Standard  Oil 
Company,  ii.  142;  Common 
Council,  members  of,  threat- 
ened with  hanging  by  citizens, 
ii.  304 

Tolstoy  praises  Wealth  Against 
Commonwealth,  i.  198 

Topolobampo,  Mexico,  ii.  53 

Town  meeting,  Winnetka,  i.  268 

Toynbee,  Arnold,  i.  55;  ii.  207 

Traction,  see  Chicago  traction 
companiesT" 

Trade,  disputes,  L.  advocates 
federal  courts  for,  i.  68;  agree- 
ments upheld  by  L.,  ii.  227 

Trade   and    Labor    Assembly   of 

i    Chicago,  i.  163 

Trade  unions,  see  Labour  unions 

Traubel,  Horace,  ii.  228,  231,  232, 

253 

Tregear,  Edward,  New  Zealand's 
Secretary  of  Labour,  ii.  no,  124 

Trevelyan,  George,  i.  172 

Truesdale's  testimony  in  Mat- 
thews case,  i.  221 

Trumbull,  Lyman,  i.  249 

Trumbull,  M.  M.,  i.  87 

Trusts,  criminal  magnates  go  free, 
i.  154;  Chicago  gas  and  street 
railway  trusts,  i.  159,  160; 
their  pretensions  disproved,  i. 
1 85;  difficulty  to  get  men  of,  into 
witness  box,  i.  208;  carnival  of, 
i.  281 ;  important  men  of,  should 
be  in  penitentiaries,  i.  282;  not 
to  be  defended  because  in  line 
of  social  evolution,  i.  288,  289; 
increased  aggressions  of,  ii.  45; 
New  Zealand's  advantage  in 


dealing  with,  ii.  121 ;  symposium 
on,  in  Independent,  ii.  125;  secur- 
ing government  favours,  ii.  126; 
threaten  the  country,  i.  227; 
ii.  135,  140;  development  of, 
under  New  Jersey  laws,  ii.  147; 
issue  in  1900  campaign,  ii.  148; 
investigations  of  and  legislation 
against,  insincere,  ii.  148;  em- 
bezzlers not  creators,  ii.  151- 
154;  Switzerland  and  New  Zea- 
land methods  against,  ii.  153; 
life-annuities  as  utmost  compen- 
sation to  owners  of,  ii.  156—8; 
American  trusts  plan  to  control 
world  markets,  ii.  168;  L.  leaves 
further  exposure  of,  to  others, 
ii.  186;  see  also  Monopoly;  Oil 
trust;  Standard  Oil  Company; 
Steel  trust;  Sugar  trust 

Trusts  and  Combinations  in  the 
United  States,  by  Ernst  von 
Halle",  i.  288 

Tuley,  Murray  F.,  i.  87 

Turner  Hall  meeting,  Chicago, 
1877,  i.  82 

Turner  societies,  advocate  prepa- 
ration for  armed  resistance,  i. 
83;  ask  L.'s  help  in  Chicago 
traction  struggle,  ii.  290 

Tuskegee,  Ala.,  school  at,  ii.  173 

Twain,  Mark,  ii.  194 

Twentieth  century,  L.'s  vision  of, 
ii.  1 60 

Twentieth  Century  Club,  of  Bos- 
ton, i.  141;  ii.  320 

Typographical  Union,  No.  9,  L. 
delegate  of,  i.  242;  No.  16,  L.  an 
honorary  member  of,  ii.  320 

Tyranny  in  the  markets,  i.  200 


U 


Uncle  Tom's  Cabin  compared  to 
Wealth  Against  Commonwealth, 
i.  196,  200 

Unemployed,  estimated  at  three 
million,  1893,  i.  239 

"Union  For  Ever,"  L.'s  address  to 
Chicago  Nationalists  Club,  i.  141 

Union  Labour  Party,  nominates  L. 
for  Congress,!.  119 

Union  Traction  Company  of  Chi- 
cago, ii.  303 

Union,  see  Labour  unions 


Index 


389 


United  Mine  Workers  of  America, 

ii.  187,  237,  308 
United  States  Department  of  the 

Interior  ii.  118 
United  States  Supreme  Court,  i. 

145;  ii.  147 
University  feels  social  awakening, 

ii.  46 
University  of  Wisconsin  received 

part  of  L.'s  library,  i.  178 
Updike,  E.G.,  i.  212 


Vacuum  Oil  Company  owned  by 
oil  trust,  i.  220 

Value,  defined,  ii.  25;  affected  by 
fluctuations  in  gold,  ii.  26 

Van  Benthuysen,  ii.  164 

Vancouver,  Canada,  ii.  ill 

Venezuelan  crisis,  ii.  127 

Victorian  Socialists'  League,  ii.  1 1 1 

Villard,  Henry,  i.  54 

Violence,  not  employed  by  striking 
miners,  ii.  196;  real  cause  of, 
refusal  of  coal  operators  to 
arbitrate,  ii.  205;  answer  to 
charge  of,  against  striking 
miners,  ii.  229;  used  by  slave- 
holders, ii.  279;  see  also  Force 

Vivian,  Henry,  Secretary  of 
Labour  Copartnership  Asso- 
ciation, ii.  69,  72,  80,  86,  170, 
179 

Von  der  Leyen,  Alfred,  i.  203;  ii. 
1 66 

Voter,  independent,  dead-heat  of 
politics,  ii.  275 

Vrooman,  Hiram,  ii.  93 

W 

Wages  system  will  go  as  slavery 

has  gone,  i.  119 

Wanamaker,  John,  ii.  225  f\ 

War,  South  African,  effect  on  New 
Zealand,    ii.    122;    Venezuelan 
difficulties,    ii.     128;    Spanish- 
American,  ii.  127,  130 
War  Department,  ii.  130,  131 
Ward,    Sir    Joseph,    Minister    of 
Commerce,    New   Zealand,    ii. 
121,  238 
Warner,  George,  i.  206 


Warrimoo,  the  steamer,  ii.  97,  101 
in 

Washington,  Booker  T.,  i.  172;  ii. 
85,  206,  268 

Washington,  George,  i.  2,  285;  ii. 
8,  158,  261 

Washington,  State,  selected  as 
headquarters  of  Brotherhood 
of  the  Co-operative  Common- 
wealth, ii.  6 1 

Watch  House,  L.'s  summer  home 
at  Sakonnet  Point,  i.  176 

Water-works  owned  by  Winnetka 
community,  i.  270 

Way,  Sir  Samuel,  i.  61 

Wayland,  J.  A.,  ii.  59,  246,  258 

Wealth,  attitude  of  lawless,  i.  154; 
the  people's,  appropriated  by 
illegal  and  criminal  means,  i. 
183;  Roosevelt's  phrase,  "Our 
criminal  rich,"  i.  232;  will  con- 
trol direct  legislation,  i.  277; 
all  produce,  all  must  share,  ii. 
ii ;  greater,  will  come  from  bet- 
ter money,  ii.  23;  evils  from 
maldistribution  of,  ii.  95;  an 
illustration  of  power  of,  ii. 
144 

Wealth  A  gainst  Commonwealth,  L.  's 
accumulation  of  material  for, 
i.  62,  181,  185;  choosing  title 
for,  i.  184;  human  interest  in, 
i.  187;  L.'s  depression  in  writing, 
i.  1 88;  manuscript  rejected  by 
four  different  firms,  i.  190;  L.'s 
financial  sacrifice  in  publishing, 
i.  191;  cheap  edition  i.  195; 
called  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin  of 
labour  movement,  i.  196;  classed 
with  Contrat  Social,  i.  200; 
George  Gunton's  criticisms  of, 
i.  206-211;  called  untruthful  by 
Archbold,  i.  226;  renewed  at- 
tacks upon,  i.  230;  references 
to,  ii.  143,  165,  185,  225 

Webb,  Beatrice  Potter,  ii.  82 

Webb,  Sidney,  ii.  150 

Wells,  David  A.,  i.  24,  31 

Wendte,  Charles  W.,  i.  47,  48 

Wesley,  John,  ii.  313 

West  Kilbride,  Scotland,  home  for 
co-operatives,  ii.  74 

Western  Union  Telegraph  Com- 
pany contrasted  to  New  Zea- 
land's, ii.  99 


390 


Index 


Weyl,  Walter,  ii.  200, 202, 203, 204, 
205,  234 

Wheat  exchanges,  i.  65 

White,  Andrew  D.,  i.  78 

White,  Anna,  Shaker,  ii.  57 

White,  Horace,  i.  24,  34,  41,  43; 
ii.  240 

Whitman,  Walt,  ii.  86 

Wilkesbarre,  Pa.,  headquarters 
of  striking  miners,  ii.  196 

Willard,  Frances,  i.  143,  253 

Williams,  George  Fred,  ii.  272 

Williams,  Leighton,  i.  213 

Wilshire,  Gaylord,  ii.  152 

Wilson,  John  M.,  ii.  220 

Winchester  Arms  Company  sells 
black  powder  to  War  Depart- 
ment, ii.  130 

Winnepeg,  Manitoba,  ii.  n  i 

Winnetka,  L.'s  home,  i.  79,  168- 
!75»  267,  269, 270;  L.'s  love  for, 
i.  279 

Winnetka  system,  origin  of,  i. 
270-273;  proved  applicable  to 
governmental  machinery,  i.  273; 
endorsed  by  many  organisa- 
tions, i.  274;  its  operation  in 
Chicago  and  Detroit,  i.  274 

Winter,  William,  his  lines  on  the 
death  of  David  Demarest  Lloyd, 
i.  140 

Wise,  B.  R.,  Attorney-General 
for  New  South  Wales,  ii.  117 

Wolff,  Henry  W.,  ii.  40 

Woman,  Wealth  Against  Common- 
wealth, dedicated  to,  in  spirit,  i. 
194 

Woman  suffrage,  granted  in  Win- 
netka referendum,  i.  273;  kindly 
influence  of,  in  New  Zealand, 
ii.  105 

Women,  equality  of,  i.  37,  304;  to 
furnish  new  energy  in  struggle 
for  social  justice,  i.  187,  195; 
vote,  i.  250,  305;  her  position  in 
marriage,  i.  305;  L.'s  high  regard 
for,  i.  306;  the  2oth  century 
woman,  ii.  161 


Workers'  Commercial  Company, 
ii.  90 

Workers'  Municipal  Election  Com- 
mittee of  Glasgow,  ii.  289 

Working  girls  ii.  291,  320 

Working  men,  L.  studies  con- 
ditions of,  i.  80;  L.  takes  place 
on  side  of,  i.  109, 154;  bound  to 
employer  by  force,  i.  112;  L. 
desires  to  serve,  i.  120;  L.  voices 
their  claim,  i.  142;  turning  to 
politics,  i.  152,  239;  urged  to 
peaceful  political  action,  i.  244; 
L.  urges  Gompers  to  lead  them 
to  People's  Party,  i.  246;  co-op- 
erative movement  of,  in  Eng- 
land, ii.  70-82,  84;  American, 
must  learn  to  co-operate,  ii.  90, 
243;  build  own  houses  in  Eng- 
land, ii.  169;  regarded  as  an  in- 
ferior class,  ii.  201;  in  Socialist 
movement,  ii.  259;  burden  of 
emancipation  upon,  ii.  263; 
threatened  by  capitalism,  ii. 
276;  interest  of,  in  Chicago 
traction  fight,  ii.  287,  290,  296; 
L.'s  faith  in,  ii.  320 

"World's  Power,  the  Next,"  ii. 
182 

World's  Fair,  1892-93,  i.  160- 
164 

Wright,  Carroll  D.,  i.  150;  ii.  83, 
150,  201,  204 


Yates,  Governor  of  Illinois,  ii. 
222 

Yellow  Creek  Lodge,  Free  Masons 
lay  corner-stone  of  Ruskin  Col- 
lege, ii.  62 

Yellow  peril,  socialism  will  end,  ii. 
276 

Yerkes,  C.  T.,  ii.  292 

Young,  Daniel  Kissam,  ii.  178 

Young  Men's  Municipal  Reform 
Association,  i.  23 


HECKMAN       l+ll 


UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS-URBANA 


